Biwa and Ninja
by Kurogane7
Summary: Samurai AU. Vincent Valentine is a travelling monk with a lot of secrets in his past. Yuffie Kisaragi is a runaway ninja princess escaping her responsibilities. When both meet, adventure ensues. Rated M for violence, cursing, and lemon in later chapters.
1. The Monk

_**A/N: My first foray into the pairing I favor the most in the whole Final Fantasy VII series: the Yuffentine (Yuffie x Vincent for those who don't know). I know I've not updated my last story for a while, but I've not been getting any comments, and so I've decided to drop it. But hey, at least it was an experiment neh? At least I know how hard it is to write from the viewpoint of a journal…an interesting experience I might add. Anyway, I know it's short, but please enjoy, and comments would be lovely-I'd like to know how I can improve and any suggestions you have would be most helpful in determining whether or not I should go on—I promise to add more details later on if I know it's worth it to continue.**_

A man sat before an audience of people in the fields, tuning his biwa and picking away at the silken strings with the bachi to test if it was perfectly tuned with a red lacquered cane sitting next to him. He wore a black version of the typical priestly garb of a travelling monk which included the robes, a red overcoat, a set of prayer beads, a pair of straw sandals, as well as a sedge shade to protect against the rain and the sun. Were it not for the fact that he was a blind monk, he would have been considered drop-dead gorgeous as his long and silky, inky black hair and effeminate appearance would have lots of women chasing after him.

As soon as the audience saw the monk pick up the bachi, and set the biwa in the proper position for one playing the lute cross-legged, the noise began to die down. With that, the monk began to play a slow note with the biwa, and then progressively made sudden strokes with the bachi. As he played, he never had to say a word, but everyone could tell what the story behind this particular song was about—a story about war, love, treachery, and loss. As everyone closed their eyes to allow the imagery of the story seep in through the meditative music, the monk told the tale with every pluck of the strings on the biwa.

_Once upon a time, there lived an oni shogun known as Omega who waged war against the ancient race of angels known as the Cetra. He had four loyal retainers: Galian Beast, the chief of the savage tribe; Death Gigas, leader of the undead legions; Hellmasker, the great berserker swordsman; and finally, Chaos, the right-hand man of Omega himself. Omega and the Cetra council had battled for generations against each other, and but none had fought a more fierce battle than when Chaos battled with an unknown general—both had fought battle after battle, with their matches always ending in a stalemate._

_One day, the unthinkable had happened. A being had fallen from the sky with aspirations of destroying the world and the universe in general. At that point, seeing how powerful this new player was, both Omega and the Cetra had agreed to put their differences aside, and work together to defeat the menace from the sky—a horrific battle was fought, and in the end, a Pyrrhic Victory ensued on the side of those protecting the world…with the combined powers of Chaos and the unknown general, and at the cost of most of their forces, the being was sealed away by the most powerful spells that both sides could conjure never again to awaken._

_It was after the war that a treaty was signed between the forces of the demons and the Cetra, calling for an immediate ceasefire between the two factions. It was after the treaties were signed that an arranged marriage between Chaos and the Cetra general was put into effect to ensure that the ceasefire was carried out. At first, the reluctance was there and it was in the open, but eventually, the two learned more about each other as the days passed, and mutual feelings were developed to the point that true love had been found in two beings who were once enemies._

_Alas, fate was not on the side of the lovers who had just gotten close. For under the noses of both Chaos and the general, and even Omega and the Cetra council, a plot had been formed even from the beginning of the treaty. On the night before the wedding, all hell had broken loose: an attack force led by Galian Beast, Death Gigas, and Hellmasker had attacked the Cetra general while she was alone in the gardens, while a small task force of elite Cetra warriors had attacked Chaos in his sleep. Both had fought their way out of the treachery killing their attackers, but when each had encountered each other once more, it was no longer as lovers, but as enemies as they fought each other until both were tired out. When they had both realized what had happened, they had also come to realize that as long as there was opposition from both sides to the wedding, they would never be together as lovers as hatreds from their own people would threaten to shatter their love immediately as distrust would spread from the treachery._

_After this revelation, it had come to the conclusion that as long as Chaos and the general lived, the ceasefire would never be honored—their respective peoples would simply take advantage of their wedding to make another attack, and the war would be started once again. And so, Chaos and the general had made a pact and took a gamble on reincarnation. They both swore to a suicide pact, and that one day, they would both be reincarnated in the same life and reunited once more as lovers in a time when the Cetra and the demons would no longer exist._

_It is said that even today, Chaos and the Cetra general are still waiting for the day that they are both reincarnated in the same life—waiting for the day that they will finally be reunited to fulfill their promise of love to each other. But until then, they shall both die and be reborn through the Lifestream as they continue search the world for one another. And from here, the story ends—the ending is now left to the audience's imagination as to the fate of these two lovers._

The monk ended the session, and began picking up the ryo thrown on the floor. He then prepared to leave as he strapped the biwa to his back, pocketed the bachi, and then picked up the cane before leaving. Once everything was packed up and ready to go, the monk picked up the bag of money, but before he started walking away, the monk heard some movement in the grass as well as the clinking of katana in sheaths and the sound of being drawn fill the air—just great, first he's starving, and now he has to deal with brigands, and seven of them judging by the sound of the footsteps.

"There's no point in hiding," said the monk, "I may be blind, but I'm not deaf. I could hear you move through the grass—you're all louder than the bell at my former temple. I must apologize, but I am currently in a foul mood, and so I must ask you to just leave me be and we all go home happy."

"Interesting sermon coming from the blind vagrant monk," said the leader of the brigands, "especially given the fact that he's surrounded on all sides! Now we want all of your donations today—if you can just hand us that bag, we'll make sure you get to get out of this scot-free, and we'll even give you access to our personal protection program if you play music and pay your wages to us."

"I would be happy to accept, but unfortunately, I need that money. And so if you'll kindly step aside and let me go into town for some food that would be lovely."

The leader of the brigands, angered by this monk's insolence simply stepped up ready with a downwards swing, and before he could even begin to yell, he felt something cut him in the chest before he fell to the ground paralyzed—this monk has been carrying a shikomizue all this time! The rest of the brigands then moved on in and tried to rely on numbers to take down the monk, only to find that their victim was turning the tables around them by dancing around bringing them all down one at a time with a single draw and re-sheathing of the sword—an iaijutsu style.

Once all seven brigands were brought down, the monk immediately flipped the blood off the blade of his sword and re-sheathed his shikomizue, and paused. "I've missed all your vitals," he said, "you would all do well to rethink your lives before you run into someone who is not as merciful as I am." As soon as he was done in that area, the monk started walking towards the town with his cane sweeping the ground for anything ahead of him. Little did he realize that he was being watched from afar, and being followed at that…

_**A/N: From here, the song was inspired by "Fuhen" by Rin, and listening to "Dan No Ura", and yes, the fairy tale idea was from "Yuffie and the Beast", courtesy of Falling Rain. Hi, if you're reading this, I hope you didn't mind, and please update on "Yuffie and the Beast" soon! **_

_**Translations:**_

_**Biwa—a four-stringed lute with five frets, shaped like a pear (think pear-shaped guitar or a double bass).**_

_**Bachi—basically a guitar pick with a long handle for playing a Japanese stringed instrument like the Biwa.**_

_**Oni—an ogre/demon in Japanese Folklore**_

_**Shogun—a warlord, the literal meaning of the word when written in Chinese is simply "general".**_

_**Ryo—an oblong golden coin, equivalent in function to a hundred dollar bill in feudal Japan.**_

_**Shikomizue—a cane with a sword blade hidden inside it, mostly used by samurai during the Meiji era when swords were banned…a perfect ninja weapon.**_

_**Iaijutsu—a Japanese martial art in which the practitioner draws his sword from the sheath, and attempts to cut down the target in one go before re-sheathing the sword, it is now known today as "iaido".**_


	2. The Thief

_**A/N: We are now introduced to Yuffie, and bits of the monk's past and his identity are revealed at last. And a much more detailed battle scene is written. As usual, comments would be helpful.**_

_**

* * *

  
**_

Yuffie Kisaragi had seen many things in her travels since the day she ran away from home at age 16 two years ago, but a blind monk taking down seven obviously skilled bandits (amateurs to be sure) without breaking so much as a sweat was a new sight for her. She was just about to help the poor soul (feeling it wasn't right to rob from the blind and cripple), but just as she was pulling out a throwing knife from a pouch hidden in her kimono sleeve, everything happened quickly as the monk showed that he was more than capable of taking care of himself as he cut down the bandits with a dance-like style of iaijutsu—oh yes, those martial arts classes have served her well, even if her father didn't think so.

As a matter of fact, if her father had wanted her to take up his title as a proper lady, then he should not have put her through those martial arts classes. All that talk about 'defending yourself' and 'being independent' was all nothing but bullshit—he just didn't want her sitting on her ass all day and bitching to him about the fact that there was nothing fun to do and that her friends were all effing busy. Which was why ran away in the first place—she did not want to have to deal with all that bullshit that Godo had said about 'responsibility', and 'respect your elders'. She wanted to see the world that her tutor, Cid Highwind, had told her about; she did not want to sit around in the comfort of her own home, waiting for people to serve her, and get fat worrying about how the rice taxes are coming along. Even if it meant that she had to work as a freelance pick pocket to fund her trip around the world. Sure, she'll miss her friends back home at the kingdom of Wutai (especially her best friend Tifa, whose should be attracting all the boys in the city by now with her bust size growing at the rate it is), but this is something she really wants to do.

Well, seeing what this monk can do changes everything—her rule of thumb in the elegant art of thievery is simple: No disabled people, no poor people…anyone else is fair game as long as they can defend themselves, even clergy. All she has to do now as she is following this blind man into town is to assess the worth that he's carrying on him. From what she can tell, it would be too cruel to take away the monk's livelihood; as beautifully crafted that biwa is, he would need it to play for more people to hear; plus, if she ran into him again without it, she would feel guilty as she won't hear this guy play another beautiful note again. She then figured that he can always make more money by the amount of ryo in that pouch of his, so that would be her first priority. But aside from the biwa, the most expensive work of art that this monk is carrying on him would be that shikomizue—that blade is made from the finest steel she had ever seen, with a wave-like temper line making the contrast of the blade akin to waves on a beach, a probable wazamono-grade katana at the very least given its quality, probably even a meitou. Now her targets are clear: the money and the sword are all that she's after—the biwa she'll leave behind.

Just as she was about to take another step, she heard her stomach growling…what a coincidence, that monk said he was hungry, and now she is too. This is just grand! She should not have spent all the money she earned raiding gunpowder from the Shinra Kingdom's mines for Boss Wallace over in the foreigner colony of Corel on a one-night beer party…and on this new short-tailed kimono and pouch and all those cool ninja weapons for it…oh all right, and she should not have stayed at that expensive inn! She's a girl for crying out loud, she can't help it, likes to squander her hard-earned cash! Ah well, maybe the monk would take pity on her and treat her to whatever vegetarian delights he might be taking up before robbing him. In fact, a block of tofu or even a bowl of miso soup might even sound good at the moment.

Foreigner colonies are simply that. Foreigners from the Western Continent across the sea, usually merchants, would come on over and trade as well as do some tourism while they stay…foreigner colonies are large communities where foreigners who decide to stay here permanently in the Island Kingdoms (with a permit of course) will gather in large numbers, they usually also serve as ports for said merchants unless they are living within the continent of Wutai, central hub of the Island Kingdoms. Every foreigner colony has a basic theme to it depending on where most of the foreigners are from. For example, the foreigner colony of Nibelheim, where Yuffie is following the monk in now, looks more akin to Victorian Britain, sans Big Ben. She then continued to follow the monk down the bustling streets as though he knew this town like the back of his hand to a small bar called "The Seventh Heaven" with its name in Wutainese script written under it. Eh, whoever said that native Wutainese don't have the right to live in these colonies as well? Especially given the fact that there are a couple of biracial Wutainese people she knows of, Tifa Lockheart being one of them…as a matter of fact, Yuffie remembered hearing talk of her opening a bar outside of the Wutainese capital. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to visit her best friend given that it's been two years since she last saw her.

Yuffie watched the monk enter the bar, and take a seat at the counter in the nearly empty bar while she simply sat next to the monk with a copy of the news in her face, watching as everyone simply glared at him before going back to their business—despite the fact that she had gotten average grades on her Western Basic Language Course at home. And lo and behold, as she peeked over the newspaper, the face she had not seen for two years had shown up—yes, it was Tifa standing at the bar. "How may I help you sir?" she asked, in that voice of hers that had gotten sweeter with sincerity over the years, and in Wutainese. And yes, as Yuffie had predicted, over the course of two years her size B breasts had officially grown to size C!

"Per chance do you serve tea and anything vegetarian here ma'am?" asked the monk, "I've not much money, and I was hoping that I could eat something while I am here. Also, I'd like to ask for something to bring with me so that I can last a little longer before heading out."

"Well, we've got some peanuts and pickles here on hand. Once in a while, I get genuine clergy coming in here, so it's actually rare to see a Wutainese monk around here, so in case I have customers demanding it such as yourself I have it at the ready—although since you're a monk I think I can whip up some miso for you, is that all right?"

The monk pulled out the bag carrying his donations, and said, "Miso would be fine, and a cup of tea to go with it would be lovely. However, all of my donations today are in Wutainese coins—would that be an inconvenience for you ma'am?"

"Why no, there's no problem at all sir. I'm just surprised that I get a gentleman for a customer today. Here, I'll take Wutainese and Western coins equally. Now is there anything else?"

"Actually, would you mind getting me a gourd of sakè while you're at it? I've somewhere important to visit with it."

Tifa smiled, and said, "That won't be a problem sir." With that, she turned and left. And Yuffie saw that as her chance to rob that monk before she came back. She'll have to be quick and careful, as that monk has shown that he's trained all of his other senses to be better than that of an ordinary man—for if one loses their ability to see, their other senses are sharpened to compensate. Ah well, change in plan—since that monk is feeding her, her only target now is that sword of his. She then started reaching for the sword, and then quietly she pulled it away and silently started walking away.

"You do realize that that does not belong to you?" asked the monk, knowing that the jig was up. "Yeah well," said Yuffie nervously, looking embarrassed as she started towards the door, "your cane was so pretty that I wanted to take a look at it. And I wanted to learn how to make canes for blind people. Well it's been fun, but I should get going now, thanks!" At that, her slow steps gradually turned into a run for the door.

"I won't stop you then, but are you sure you're not missing anything?" Yuffie paused, and turned around to see the monk holding up a in his right hand, black lacquered tortoise shell comb with an inlaid mother of pearl rose bud in the middle, flanked on both sides with two jade dots. HOLY SHIT! That fucking monk had stolen her most treasured possession! She thought she secured it properly.

"I've been picking pockets at a younger age than you, so don't be surprised. Please, sit down, and I'll treat you." At that, Yuffie obeyed, and started walking towards the monk and sitting down next to him—oh he'll pay for stealing that, that comb is a memento from her mother. As soon as she got to the counter, Tifa had re-entered the room, and saw Yuffie standing there; the shock on her face was apparent until it changed into pure joy as she quickly put down the tray carrying the soup and tea, and ran to catch her old friend in the tightest bear hug she'd ever felt. "Yuffie!" she said, "It's been a long time! How have you been! Wait, come to think of it, where have you been all this time?"

As soon as Tifa released Yuffie realizing that she was strangling, the latter started gasping for air—Tifa may look dainty, but that only hides the fact that she was labeled as next in line to succeed in the Zangan style of martial arts, not to mention that she has always been extremely strong, even as a child. "Yeah, it's been a while Tifa," she said, coughing, "I've been here and there. Is dad still mad I ran away?"

"Last I heard he was too worried about your safety to be mad at you. Shouldn't you be going home by now?"

Yuffie was shaking her head at this point. "Nuh-uh. No way. I'm not going home until I've at least seen the whole of Wutai—if Godo wants me to come back at this point, then he'll have to come on over and drag me home himself, otherwise he can go fuck himself."

Tifa sighed and smiled to herself. "You really haven't changed Yuffie. I—oh my lord, I've completely forgotten! I'm sorry sir. Here's your lunch!"

The monk said, drinking his soup as soon as it was placed carefully in front of him, "That's all right. It's just a little mistake, and you were happy to see your friend again. After all, one must appreciate what time they have on this world with their friends and family."

Tifa simply nodded her head, and went back to work. Before she could ask for her comb back, Yuffie heard shouting in the table over in the corner. "NO FUCKING WAY!" shouted one of the patrons, in Western Basic, "The Shinra Kingdom is holding a bloody thirty-year-old bounty on some nobody? That's the biggest bloody pile of bull-fucking-shit I've ever heard if you ask me."

Another voice belonging to a patron spoke, his voice having a lisp to it, "It ain't a lie mate…from the rumors I heard, this be the biggest, meanest mother fucker under Shinra's hit list. This bounty goes up to 1 million bloody pieces of Wutainese gold—which would translate to roughly 30 million gil in our currency. Whoever that poor fucker is, he is being hunted down by the most modernized nation in the islands—in fact, I've heard that Shinra is still in a power battle with the Wutainese royalty for control of the islands. He's got no fucking chance when he's got that much bloody power chasing him down."

"Well, I for one may consider getting that bounty. All the whores I can fuck…all the beer I can drink…imagine all the possibilities. I hear that the only clue we got to this wanker's identity is that he's got eyes the color of rubies. So I'll be on the lookout for any man with red eyes."

"You're a fucking idiot Wedge, if Shinra's offering that bloody large a bounty, there's got to be a catch, otherwise they wouldn't be paying so fucking much. If you're careless for even one second, then I won't be there to bail you out. Count on it."

"And you're a bloody fucking coward Biggs, sometimes those bounties can be miscalculated, and this would be the easiest gil we can make. And if you can fucking help me find that ass, then I may consider giving you a cut."

This is none of her business—novice bounty hunters are not worth her time. Although Biggs was correct: if this big-time criminal is still at large even after thirty years, then Yuffie will have to be extra careful. She then turned her head to find the monk only to see that he left the comb behind and took his cane back. Yuffie was determined to keep on following this monk, wherever he went. It was only fortunate that she caught him walking down the streets in the marketplace; otherwise, she would have lost him and she'd never make a profit without that sword he's carrying. Those ninja skills of hers that she received from the Four Guardians really have paid off, and so tracking him will be easy by the rate at which he's moving.

She continued to follow him even out of town, and towards a burnt-down building, and he was carrying that gourd of sakè with him. Was he going to break his vows against alcohol and drink in a secluded place? She then watched as he navigated the corridors of the burnt-down building, and found a room with two tablets in it. Once he made it to his destination, the monk uncorked the gourd, and poured some sakè on one tablet, and then the rest on the other tablet before setting his cane next to him so that he can sit himself down cross-legged in front of the tablets in prayer for these two souls.

When someone pours sakè on a tablet, more specifically a grave marker, it is usually a traveler's way of paying respect to the dead—something akin to bringing beers to a party for the departed. Normally, traveling monks don't really do this for other dead people; they're mostly too busy meditating on their travels to perform such an act, but perhaps whomever's name is on those tablets meant something to this monk who pulled his biwa in a playing position and bachi, and prepared to play. He then began to play a classic song typically played by monks venerating the bodhisattva Da Chao. It was a beautiful song that was intended for meditation detailing the travels a woodcutter had gone through searching for Leviathan and Phoenix so that he could carve both on wood until he had witnessed the process of Samsara for himself dying every time and being reincarnated as a different animal every time before he realized he dozed off and found his inspiration to carve the two beings.

As soon as he was finished, the monk slung the biwa over his shoulder and put the bachi away before picking up the cane, and bowing three times in front of each tablet before leaving. Yuffie followed him only to watch as ten figures had appeared out of the shadows—she didn't even realize that they were there. "Well, well. It's about damn time we found you Valentine," said one of the figures, obviously one of the younger ones, "we actually lost your scent back at Kalm…when my superiors told me that you were crafty, I never did believe them. And here my colleagues said that we needed a big wig to get you…well, looks like they were fucking right on."

"What are ten Shinra demons such as yourselves doing out in the middle of nowhere harassing a blind monk?" asked Valentine, getting his hand ready to draw the sword, "You do realize that I have things to do and places to see? Well, figuratively speaking anyway."

"Don't play the 'blind card' on me, Vincent, it won't work I've already read the reports on your physiology, and there's nothing wrong with your fucking eyes. And besides, that's tough talk coming from you considering," said one of the figures, walking out of the shadows into the light obviously the leader, his appearance was that of a Russian Santa Claus only with spiky iron gray hair and scars covering his body under the tunic and pants, "although I wouldn't blame you. I wouldn't want to see that bastard of a quack doctor again either, but he is one of our bosses—whether you like it or not. Our orders are to bring you back with us dead or alive to Hojo—and since the Court Magician was unspecific as to the how, I think it would be fitting that we bring you back to him in pieces as you are one of us."

"Are you sure about that Heidegger? It's been quite a few years since we've last battled. Do you think you're able to keep up?"

"Count on it!"

One of the shadows had pounced from behind Vincent only to be dodged, and cut in a single swipe and then decapitated in a second before the sword moved on to stab another of the shadows who had rushed up behind him. That shadow had obviously transformed at the last minute, and was eviscerated in one side swipe before being kicked back. It was then that all of the shadows had transformed except for Heidegger, and as the numbers of the creatures shrank in critical cuts, it then came down to three of the underlings, all of whom had begun dodging Vincent's iaijutsu and basic sword attacks and then countering with a punch or a kick as he in turn danced around each strike.

Yuffie couldn't take the tension anymore—she wanted the sword, but she felt bad if she let them take Vincent away. She jumped on in, pulled out a scroll, and summoned up enough ki to bring out her giant four-point shuriken, and threw it at one of the creatures with enough momentum as to decapitate it before it returned to her hand, and she managed to make another jump and barely cut another of the creatures before Vincent finished it off with one single thrust from behind its skull. After that, both Yuffie and Vincent had finished off the last monster by trapping it, and slicing it in three in a single synchronized motion. All that was left was Heidegger.

"Even after all these years, I always have counted on you being this good Valentine, even if you work in synch with a partner," he said, as he transformed into a hulking monstrosity, "and it's been a while since we last fought indeed. Thanks to what that bastard did, I am now somewhat like you! Now let's fight, you and me."

Yuffie immediately charged and attacked Heidegger with her shuriken, only for her to watch in dismay as he brushed off the attack, and knocked her away. "Blades don't work on me brat!" he said, tauntingly holding her down by the neck with his left hand reeling in for a punch to her face with the right, "You'll have to hit me harder than that if you want to cut me!" As soon as he began to land the punch, his arm was sliced off in one go. Heidegger released his grip on Yuffie and looked at his wound in confusion, and said, "Impossible, that quack Hojo said that my skin would be like iron, how could a mere sword be able to cut through my skin?"

"It's very complicated," said Vincent, sheathing his sword with his back to the two of them, "for some reason, this family heirloom passed on down from my mother known as 'Quicksilver' always vibrates for as long as I'm holding it. And because it's constantly vibrating at a high speed, it creates a kind of chainsaw effect where the vibrations make the blade sharp enough to cut through steel like a hot knife through butter. Other than that, it is simply much harder than a standard sword. And I must apologize Heidegger, but you're already finished."

Heidegger simply smirked, and grunted in acknowledgement, "Yeah. It seems I've already been cut by you more than just by my arm…you mind granting me a favor Valentine?"

"Name it."

"Don't stop running…ever. And if you have to deal with Hojo, then make sure that bastard suffers the bad karma that's coming to him for everything he did." At that, Heidegger fell to the ground, sliced in half via a sagittal cut from the top of his head. Yuffie watched in horror as the beast that was Heidegger was split from the cut down the middle of his body. She then watched as the monk walked towards her, and revealed that he had eyes the color of rubies…they could easily be mistaken for summon materias.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, checking on her. Yuffie could not say a word. She was simply stunned at the appearance of such beautiful red eyes looking at her stormy gray eyes. "I-I'm fine, thank-you," she managed to stutter, "u-um, w-wh-what are we going to do with the bodies?"

"Can you gather some dry twigs and start a camp fire?" asked the man named Vincent, "I'm going to get the bodies together so that I can cremate them."

Yuffie pulled her face into a grimace at that point, "Grossness."

"Would you rather I leave them here for the vultures to eat?"

"No."

"Then please gather the firewood. We have ten bodies to burn, and I don't want to waste any time. After that, I would recommend that you leave. You must have heard of the bounty that Shinra has on me at the 'Seventh Heaven'. They'll only send more of these creatures over to try and retrieve me."

"Hell no. I'm not leaving you until I get that sword in your hands."

"Would you really steal a family heirloom?"

Yuffie simply snickered, and said, "Heirloom, food, money, whatever, I'm stealing it so that I can either sell it or eat it. I refuse to go back to the capital until I've at least seen this entire island…and that sword of yours should last me at least a week. So until I get that sword of yours, I'm not leaving you alone!"

Vincent simply grunted, and said, "Fine then. It's your funeral."

* * *

_**A/N: The characters may seem a bit out of character, my apologies, but this is in fact an alternate universe. If Vincent is acting out of character, it's mostly because monks are usually supposed to be polite. The Woodcutter's Song was inspired by Osamu Tezuka's "Phoenix" series; the fourth book…in fact, I have to thank Tezuka-sama for giving me the muse for this story, as I also like his "Dororo" and "Black Jack" series.**_

_**Translations and Vocabulary:**_

_**Wazamono—translates to "sharp sword"; in this case, it refers to a grade of high-quality sword. Saijo owazamono is the best grade possible, while wazamono is the lowest grade of all high-quality katana.**_

_**Meitou—literally "named blade", normally refers to the name of the swordsmith who forged the sword, instead of the sword itself.**_

_**Sakè—rice wine (I've always wanted to try it). In the old days, before bottles were brought to Japan, all fluids (medicines, water, and sakè being the most common) were sometimes carried in dried and hollowed-out calabash gourds.**_

_**Bodhisattva—a Buddhist saint who forgoes Nirvana (the Buddhist Heaven) to save as many souls from going to Hell as they can. **_


	3. Elmyra

_**A/N: Dream sequences… seeing Elmyra and her family…and romances…I wonder how it will play out through the story? Reviews would be helpful as always.**_

_**

* * *

**_

"_Ready the artillery men! We can't let those Cetra bastards make another advance," shouted a giant with rotting gray skin, carrying a giant club, "This position should be held until Chaos arrives. We are not to retreat until further orders! I guarantee you, that as soon as we're done with this siege, we'll have a feast of Cetra flesh!" The undead warriors who heard simply had their morale boost, and gave their general a "hoo-ah!" as they ran to prepare the artillery._

"_Death Gigas," yelled a beast scout flying towards the giant, "this is bad general, the entire forest is surrounded! We're being overrun! Chaos is in the middle of a battle with a Cetra general. He won't make it back to the fortress in time."_

"_No worries," said a smooth and baritone voice from behind the scout, "I'm sorry it took too long comrade, but that general was rather difficult." The speaker had bluish violet skin, and had the appearance of a fit and devilishly good-looking man no older than his late twenties or early thirties…what would separate him from a normal human being aside from the fact that he is only a head shorter than Death Gigas would be the fact that he had large webbed wings on his back, and the horns protruding backwards from his forehead in front of his long midnight black hair._

"_Chaos," said Death Gigas, looking towards the winged figure behind the scout, "I knew you would come out the victor of that battle. Now there's no time to waste—we're already being overrun. We called you in for more reinforcements. Where is everybody else in your special operations team?" Chaos didn't say anything as his wings folded back around his shoulders like a cape before he produced the head of a dead Cetra warrior from his bag. It was easy to see who it was that Chaos had killed—it was General Hibikuro Kenji, the warrior who was leading the Cetra Special Forces. "We were ambushed and shot down. I was the only survivor—apparently, the idea here was to lure me out into the open with that siege, and then assassinate me. Last I saw, there was only enough enemy soldiers to surround forest, but not enough to overrun it."_

"_Nobody can beat Omega's right-hand man. Tonight, we shall enjoy a feast from that fool's skull! Were there any survivors?"_

"_Me!" A feminine voice had screamed, jumping out from the shadows. She was wielding a giant chakram with spikes protruding from the outer rim of the blade. Her pounce was aimed towards Chaos himself, who simply stepped aside, grabbed his attacker's arm, and quickly performed a judo chop to her neck, knocking her unconscious…as Chaos studied everything about this girl, he came to one conclusion: this was Hibikuro's daughter and his current second-in-command. Her name was Hibikuro Mayumi._

"_Oh yes," said Death Gigas, reaching his hands towards her, "me and the boys will be having plenty of fun with her…and then she'll be on the menu with all her other friends! I wonder how I am going to…" Death Gigas never got to finish that sentence, and his hands were barely an inch from the girl's olive-tanned skin, as he was stopped by a blade prepared to pierce his skull. "Nobody is to touch this girl or the corpse of her father and his soldiers," said Chaos with a grim look on his face, and in a dark tone, "enough blood has been spilled tonight—the enemy is already retreating upon hearing of Hibikuro's demise. After all, her father had given me a good battle; he at least deserves to be buried by his own daughter…and it is the least I can do for her."_

_Death Gigas swallowed, he knew that Chaos was serious. "Who would have thought that out of all four of us, you tend to be the most sentimental? I wonder if Omega was right to choose you over Hellmasker to succeed him—fine then, but for your sake, you'd better pray that she doesn't come back to bite us all in the ass; I would hate for that little bitch to come and kill us all in the name of revenge for her father, all because you decided to be nice to her."_

_Chaos ignored the comment, and hefted Mayumi over his shoulder as he flew off to drop her off at the nearest Cetra camp. The commander there immediately ordered his men to hold their fire as he landed, recognizing the daughter of the Special Forces General. "General Hibikuro's body is in the forest one kilometer east of here. See to it that he gets a proper burial as his daughter dictates," he said, looking at the sixteen-year-old girl, "and tell her that if she is still looking for vengeance, then I will be waiting for her on the battlefield, however long it takes for her to get stronger." With that, Chaos flapped his wings, and took off—the Cetra soldiers were too demoralized to shoot him down upon seeing the head of their general…_

Vincent woke up from the dream. It was an odd one…it was so vivid, so real. Every little detail had behaved as if it had actually happened. Perhaps this is his karma for his own transgressions: a descent into insanity if you will. But then again, what would this dream mean? Is this really a window into the past? Up until now, he had not had such dreams. As a matter of fact, most of the time, his sleep is dreamless to be sure, but this dream seemed so real.

The tale of Chaos and the Cetra general is a rather old one…harking back to the days that mankind first made his home here on the world. Even the Westerners admit to a similar story, only instead of telling that tale in song, they have written it down as a mere fairytale. Nobody can confirm the truth of this tale as it was so long ago. In any case, it would not do to dwell on such things—it is not befitting of a monk such as himself to be clouding his head with such a tale…perhaps a bath is in order to clear his head. And just as well—there's a waterfall nearby (judging by how faint the sound is, roughly five meters away), he'd might as well take advantage of the pool and get himself clean.

* * *

Yuffie went to sleep after trying to steal Vincent's cane as usual. It's been three days since she started following him, and not one successful attempt at taking the weapon. She even tried to steal it from him in his sleep at night only to fail at every attempt—from what she can tell of Vincent's sleeping habits, he always grips his sword near him, thus making it all the more difficult to steal it. He also prefers to sleep with his back against a wall as opposed to lying down on the ground.

She then awakened to finding him missing. This is not good! That means that he's ditched her! No target ditches Yuffie Kisaragi and gets away with it! She packed up her things and began to search for him through the tall grass. As she kept grumbling about how wasn't fair for him to be leaving her like that without telling her, and what she was going to do when she found him, she failed to see a ledge, and fell upon taking that step blinded by her anger. Fortunately, her fall was broken by a pool of water—however, as soon as she found the bottom of the pool, she stood back up for a breath, and saw a slender and taut muscular body covered in scars as she continued up to see Vincent's claret eyes looking down at her. "As awkward as this situation seems, did you want something?" he asked, "As you can see, I'm in the middle of a bath."

Yuffie blushed, and started splashing around in the water as she struggled to turn around. "I-I-I didn't mean to see you like this," she stuttered, her face still beet-red, "I thought you ditched me. I didn't…oh my god, I'm sorry!"

"…"

The silence was simply stifling—as a matter of fact, she could still hear her heart beating faster than a taiko dojo line. "So umm…"

"…"

Damn it! Her heart's distracting her…better calm down… "Why is Shinra after you?"

"…It's none of your business."

"Bullshit! The minute we were attacked by those things, it's become my business. I want to know what I've gotten myself into."

"If you want to know, then find out yourself. I for one have things to think about …unlike some people stealing from others."

"Why you—I'll have you know…" Yuffie never got to finish her sentence, as she turned to see Vincent fall to his knees, grabbing his chest before falling unconscious. Horror was on her face as she ran to grab him by the shoulders before he fell into the water. She had a hard time dragging him around as he actually weighed quite a lot for a tall and lean person. Just great—he ditches her, he surprises her with his naked body while taking a bath, he was a dick to her, and now she has to save him and look even closer at that delicious body of his, can't life throw her a bone?

Ah well, she'd better drag his sexy ass to dry land. Wait a minute, let's backtrack a bit, did she say "delicious body of his" and "sexy ass" to herself? Oh god, that was just so wrong! Bad Yuffie! He shouldn't be "delicious" or "sexy', oh no, not with all those scars crisscrossing his body, not to mention he was being an asshole to her. Yeah, he should be called "ugly beyond all reason"…although if that's true, then why does she have a hard time believing herself? Why is she still saving him? What the fucking hell is she doing getting turned on by picturing him in a women's kimono and making out with her when she should be bashing his face in with a rock? Grossness! Snapping her mind back to reality, she rationalized it's probable that it's his very expensive sword that she really wants—speaking of which, she found that it was not by his neatly-folded clothes and properly set-up instruments. Yeah, that's right; she's just saving his life our of the kindness of her heart so that he can tell her where his sword is…right? Right?!

* * *

Vincent opened his eyes slowly, and started sitting up. This cannot be happening! Not now! Not when he is still thinking about the answer to that question. _**IT**_ was placed in his chest for a reason, and he is travelling the land to contemplate it! He immediately started to look for his clothes when he realized that his hand was on top of them.

"Don't worry about your oath to celibacy," said a voice next to him, revealing itself to be Yuffie, "I didn't molest you while you were asleep. You were too much of an asshole to me to do that."

"I'm not telling you where it is."

Yuffie looked shocked at his words. "What? But I…"

"I know you're still after my sword. And I have to say no."

"All right then! Next time you're about to faint like that, I won't save you!"

"How would you like it if I stole that comb from you and sold it to someone?"

Yuffie glared at Vincent this time. "Not gonna happen! You'll never steal it from me!"

"I swiped it from you easily in 'The Seventh Heaven', remember? It is possible. If you steal from me, count on the law of karma that I'll do the same to you."

Her anger was clear as she spat, "Who wants your stupid sword anyway?" She got up and started stomping away. Good. As long as she's not tied to him, he won't have to worry about her. She may be a thief, but she is actually a good girl who really deserves a good life—one untainted by his past…one that _she_ is no longer able to live.

Oh he remembers how he got each of the scars on his body…all of the lacerations had come from training, war, and from botched assassination and reconnaissance missions in his earlier days, some of which he can always talk about. However, the smoother scars came from unnecessary Western surgery techniques and syringes, as well as acupuncture needles, all of which were unspeakable horrors for the sake of science according to Court Magician Hojo…but he knew the truth of why all this was being done to him. He wasn't stupid; he remembers that _she_ also had a hand in those self-same experiments. This has led to why he joined the monastery in the first place—he wanted to travel the land to cleanse himself of his sins, and in the meantime, figure out what to do now that everything has happened the way it has.

As he finished dressing, he then made way for the waterfall. As soon as he had arrived, he found "Quicksilver" behind the curtain of water—right where he left it; he began to close his eyes to continue with the charade of being blind and started making his way north. There is someone up there he would like to visit, a kind of reunion if one may call it that…

* * *

If Vincent thought Yuffie had actually given up trying to steal his sword, he was sorely mistaken. She still wants it oh so badly. In fact, she'll let him take whatever he wants, just not her mother's hair comb. It was the last thing of her mother's that Yuffie had before she died, leaving the six-year-old Yuffie to the care of her father. Of course, Godo was broken after her death, what good husband would not react this way to the loss of his wife? But that still gave him no excuse to neglect Yuffie that way.

In any case, she doesn't want to go back home to her dad. Not yet anyway. She still has a lot to see, and a hell of a lot more to do before she goes on home…and that prick monk over there below her starting a campfire is impeding her quest to do just that. As she watched him, she saw him sniffing around a bit—probably looking for fruits. Ha! That freaking idiot! He should have packed food with him! Oh god, why did she have to mention food? Now she's hungry again. Before she could start looking for food herself, she watched as a rock whizzed by her head, and heard the sound of something falling to the ground…looking at the ground where the rock fell to the floor, she saw a recently-killed and poisonous-looking snake.

"If you're done trying to sneak up from far away, would you care for some dinner?" asked Vincent, "I was going to have fruit, but alas I've had to kill a snake for tonight." Snake for dinner? Grossness! But then again, she is hungry, what would eating snake hurt? Vincent started walking towards the dead snake, pretending to be blind as he knelt down and started praying for the soul of the snake before taking it away for dinner; as a monk, you are not really allowed to eat meat, but if you are, then you have to pray for the soul of the animal you're killing for the meal.

* * *

Vincent simply sat as the two halves of the snake roasted over the open campfire. His eyes were closed, but just as well—he can avoid suspicion in public much more easily and effectively this way as his eyes would give him away easily. "Where are we going anyway?" asked Yuffie finally, "To see an old friend," said Vincent, chewing through his half of the snake, "she lives up north on the edge of the Midgar Colony."

Yuffie looked at her snake with disgust, but decided to bite the bullet and eat the tail end of the snake. Now she was surprised! "Hey, this is actually good! Who would have thought—wait a minute; your friend is a 'she'?"

"She's not a girlfriend, if that's what you're thinking. Although we are very much best friends…in fact, we were part of a circle."

"What happened?"

"Why are you so interested?"

"Who knows? I might like her more than you. And besides, if you won't tell me about yourself, then she will. I am going to find out more about you, or my name isn't Yuffie Kisaragi, the world's greatest ninja thief!"

Twitching subtly upon hearing that name, Vincent simply looked at Yuffie with surprise. "Kisaragi? You wouldn't happen to know a Godo Kisaragi would you?"

"He's my dad, what's it to you?"

He knew she looked familiar. Godo Kisaragi was once an old colleague and friend before he took up the title of emperor—as a matter of fact, Vincent was present during his coronation, if only in the shadows. And then as he studied her carefully, he immediately knew who her mother was—and she was one of the prettiest women he had ever met, and he knew that it was no surprise as to whom she had ended up with spending her life with. Perhaps Yuffie would have the opportunity to learn more about her mother and father on this trip, and for him to look back into the past and see where everything went wrong for him…

* * *

The next morning, Yuffie continued to guide Vincent on northwards to the Midgar Colony. As she held his hand and walked through the city, she took a look at the buildings around her. The Midgar Foreigner Colony had buildings akin to Renaissance-era Italy…it was the progress capital among the colonies as lots of new things seem to come from Midgar. Looking through the streets, Yuffie finally found the destination…it was in the residential district of the colony, although it was much more a slum district than a place to live.

"She lives in a place down this street…I believe it was two blocks up ahead, and then six blocks to the left," said Vincent, "it should be a flower shop with a living quarters upstairs." Following Vincent's instructions, she found their destination within five minutes, and what she saw astounded her. Even though this shop itself looks a bit run-down, it only enhanced the beauty that came with the flowers on sale. On the outside, there was a middle-aged woman sweeping up the floor, her hair was graying, but she still looked beautiful in her age. She then looked up and saw Yuffie and Vincent walking towards her.

"Vincent?" she asked, looking at him in surprise, "Is that you?"

"It's been a while Elmyra, you're looking well," answered Vincent, opening his arms as the woman walked towards him with a hug. "Yuffie, this is Elmyra Gainsborough. She is the friend I was telling you about. Elmyra, this is Yuffie Kisaragi."

Elmyra looked at Vincent with surprise, and then towards Yuffie, "Kisaragi? Are you by any chance related to Godo Kisaragi?"

Yuffie, was confused now. "Why is everybody asking about my dad?"

Elmyra chuckled, and calmed down, "It's nothing dear, it's just that your father, Vincent, and I were part of the same circle along with three others. Your mother, Xiaoyin, was also part of this circle. Ah, what am I doing? Please come on in! You must be tired from your trip!"

Vincent sat around at the table, sipping tea with some cookies on the table. It's been a few months since he last saw Elmyra, and even longer since he saw the rest of his friends…but perhaps this is a good chance to get this secret off his chest. "So, how did you guys all meet?" asked Yuffie, "It's been a while, so I might not remember all the details," started Elmyra, "It all started when…" "Hi mom!" said a kindly voice from behind the table, it belonged to a girl with auburn hair and green eyes, roughly in her late teens to early twenties, with a basket of flowers in her hand, "Oh, I didn't know you had guests today."

Elmyra looked at the girl, and had a sincere smile on her face. "It's fine dear. Aeris, this is my old friend Vincent Valentine, and his companion, Yuffie Kisaragi. How was the flower-picking?"

"Good, I found quite a few fresh flowers for sale. They're camellias!"

"That's good. Why don't you go clean up?"

"Okay!" Aeris ran up the stairs humming on the way.

Sighing, Elmyra settled herself down on the chair she was sitting on. "Aeris is such a fine girl…I'm only sorry for what happened to her mother—died in childbirth she did. She and I may not be mother and daughter by blood, but I wouldn't trade any moment I've had with her for anything. Now, where were we? Ah yes! Our fellowship started on a dark rainy night.

"We were all orphans under the care of Reverend Grimoire Valentine from the day we were all six. On that night, a woman appeared before Reverend Valentine, with a red cane in her hand and an unconscious boy in her arms—although she was in a weakened state, she was still a beautiful Wutainese woman. I don't know what transpired between them, but that woman died after saying her last words, and the reverend gave her a proper burial at a tree outside the orphanage.

Yuffie started digesting the information, and as she did, she started feeling some twinge of pity for the monk, being orphaned and not knowing your mother died has got to be a very bad fate for a child.

"The next day, Reverend Valentine introduced the boy to us as a blind orphan by the name of Vincent Valentine, and he would be raised personally by the reverend himself as a son. Weeks went by and the other orphans wouldn't speak to Vincent due to the fact that he wouldn't conform to the Ifalna religion, and was a loyal Da Chao believer. It wouldn't be until Xiaoyin and I stepped in and invited Vincent into our group. Back then, it was just me, Godo, Xiaoyin, and two others who were part of the circle, but Vincent slowly grew into the circle, and eventually became our voice of reason—in fact, he became the second-in-command next to Godo, and we all looked to him for counsel. We were all a tight-knit group for the next six years until it happened…

Yuffie was curious…what did happen?

"I'm not sure what happened, but the orphanage caught fire somehow, and all the orphans managed to escape. The thing that separated us was that we all ran in different directions as soon as the fire broke out. I immediately thought of Reverend Valentine, and started looking to save him, when I saw something a child should not be seeing…I saw Reverend Valentine with a bullet hole through his head. After this moment, we all managed to hide out in the places we ran to. That's about all I can tell you about our circle of friends. But perhaps Vincent can tell you what happened to the others."

Vincent just up and left as soon as his name was mentioned; he did not want to discuss it. It was a hurt to him so bad that he did not want to recount what had happened to the other two friends. It was just too painful…

_

* * *

It had been three years since the loss of her father, and Hibikuro Mayumi had gotten stronger. She had trained diligently and significantly harder than everyone else in her class to get stronger than the demon that had killed her father, even getting promoted more quickly in the army as she tried to hunt him down and do battle with him. Her progress has put her on tier with that menace—she'll never forget the face of the demon Chaos, and she would strive to get stronger until the day that she finally puts an end to his reign of terror from the shadows. Today was the anniversary since she had witnessed her father's decapitation to Chaos—she even remembers every little detail of that duel as if it were yesterday. She had come with flowers and water to take care of his headstone._

_A strange thing had been occurring in the years since her father's death—every time, before she comes on in with her flowers and the cleaning supplies, she finds that the flower pot for the grave is filled with thin cherry blossom branches and a shot of sakè in front of the headstone every year. Whoever it is must certainly be an admirer of her father, especially to treat him to wine. Perhaps she can meet this mysterious admirer before he can flee, as she had been allowed to leave the barracks earlier._

_She then heard a voice coming from the graveyard. Hiding behind a tree, she listened in and saw that the voice belonged to a cloaked figure. "Hello again, General," said the voice, very raspy but almost familiar, "It's been three years now. Your daughter is a very beautiful woman, on the battlefield, and even out of it. I'm sure you would have been proud that she has gotten this strong. I guess perhaps I'm getting too lax in my training as of late. I'm just here to pay you another visit…I only want you to know that…" the cloaked figure heard it!_

_Mayumi had accidentally dropped the bucket of water due to something falling on her hand. Just as suddenly as she saw the intruder turn his head, she began to pursue him—she wanted to find out his identity! She was barely six inches away from him and she watched as he pulled out a few pellets and threw them to the floor—a smoke bomb. Once the smoke cleared out, she found herself at the foot of her father's grave, and then she saw cherry blossom branches in the flower pot beneath her, and a shot of sakè in front of the headstone. This intruder was the admirer she was looking forward to meeting. But just who is he? And how does he know that she's getting stronger?_

_She'll figure this out later; right now, she has her duties to perform as a good daughter. She went back for her bouquet and bucket, and started cleaning the headstone by throwing water from the bucket over with a dipping spoon and wiping it. She then placed the bouquet neatly among the cherry blossom branches before standing in front of the grave and bowing down three times…_

Yuffie woke up from her dream in the middle of night. Elmyra was kind enough to let them stay over for the night. As she went down, she began to hear Elmyra and Vincent's voices, and so she decided to snoop around the corner to listen in. "So how goes your search Vincent?"

Vincent sighed and said, "Not very well. I've been travelling for a while to find an answer, and so far, I am still lost. I was travelling by, and I thought that in addition to giving Yuffie more of an understanding of her parents when they were children, I was hoping that I could ask for some help…you know, put me back on the track."

"Well I would be lost and confused too if I were betrayed by two of our own members. I actually never thought that the day would come since we were always the one to come to you. But then again, I guess it wasn't fair of us to keep on coming to you for advice, and so it's karma at work as your religion puts it. In your case, I doubt I can really help you, but you really should look back on what time you've spent with Lucrecia—that should be a good place to start."

Vincent grabbed Elmyra's hand gently, and smiled. "Thanks, it should be a good start for me—I've been looking in all the wrong places. I am lucky to have had a friend like you."

Elmyra's blush was obvious, as she started shaking her head. "I-it's nothing Vince. I was just helping a friend. But then again, if it weren't for the terrible things that happened to you, I'd be jealous. As the years pass by, I will get older and more lines will appear on my face, while you will remain young and beautiful until the day you die. In fact, if you weren't a monk, I'm sure that any girl would be lucky to be called Mrs. Valentine if they were willing to go all the way—I'm sure even my Aeris would be a good wife to you one day." At that last sentence, Elmyra was looking at the stairway, and surprising Yuffie to the point that she jumped backwards into someone who was behind her, causing a bit of commotion as both grunted—it was Aeris.

Knowing that both have been found out, Yuffie and Aeris walked down the stairs, with a blush on both of their faces."Mom! Don't say such things in front of guests! Besides, I appreciate the offer, but I'm seeing someone."

Elmyra laughed, and as her laughter died down, she began, "Don't worry Aeris, I haven't forgotten that Fair boy…although I have always thought that Strife boy would have the backbone to step up. He was cute—he looked like he had a nest of chocobo for hair!"

"I love Cloud Mom, just not the way he loves me. In fact, I've got a friend over in Nibelheim, and I'm planning to set her up on a blind date with him."

"Ah yes, I remember now. Anyway, I think it's time we all went back to sleep. It's very late, and I'm sure that Vincent and Yuffie are going to be leaving in the morning. I wish you well on your search."

Yuffie nodded in acknowledgement, and guided Vincent to the stairs, and led him to the guest room. "Elmyra seems to be a nice lady."

"She is a friend, one of the few I've had in the past."

_**

* * *

A/N: The longest chapter I've written yet…not sure if this would count under the drama category for this chapter, but we do see something coming up don't we? Ah yes, about the snake dinner…I never tried it myself, but I heard it tasted good. And if anyone has gone to China, would you please tell me how snake wine tastes?**_

_**Translations and Vocabulary:**_

_**Chakram—the East Indian analogue to the shuriken; it is a wide and flat ring of metal with a sharp outer edge not unlike a Frisbee, meant to be thrown in one hand…Tira from "Soul Calibur III" and "Soul Calibur IV" uses a larger version of one that would be too heavy to throw.**_

_**Taiko—the Japanese giant drum. There are dojo that teach people how to play these large instruments in large groups and in synch…in fact, a taiko dojo is usually the same as a taiko band.**_

_**Xiaoyin—a Chinese name literally meaning 'little sound'.**_


	4. Demonic Encounter

_**A/N: When Vincent's secret is revealed, it becomes clear that Yuffie is involved now. How so? Only time will tell…**_

_**

* * *

**_

_Chaos sat on the treetops, watching his new special operations team flying through the forest to the meeting place. Omega had given him permission to assemble his own team to do with as he wishes. He had personally handpicked these ten greenhorns of the main demon race; all of whom were the best of the best among the rookies, and so Chaos saw fit to train them himself for leadership in the special operations unit—after all, he cannot be in every place at once, and so training lieutenants under his command would help. This first mission of theirs together will weed out those who are not worthy of further training, from those who are; and what better way of weeding out weaklings than to perform a raid?_

"_All right you maggots," he shouted, looking at the ten trainees as they all fought amongst each other, causing the fighting to die down as he lowered his voice, "you will all remain maggots in my eyes until the day I deem you above that title. Now listen up, or you will all be dead maggots! For your first lesson, I'm going to have you all do a mission! Not one where you just sit around and fight each other, but one where I'm going to put you all in groups of five. I have here in my hand ten strands of rope dipped in red or blue dye—there are five red strands and five blue strands. You are all to pull out one strand and group together with everyone of the same color."_

_Chaos pulled out ten strands of thin rope, and watched as everyone took their rope and grouped together according to the color of their strands. "Good. Now here's the assignment: we are starting a raid for supplies on a Cetra base two kilometers northeast of here. You are to hijack as many supply wagons as possible and escape with them to the base—bonuses to those who destroy warehouses before escaping. As part of this mission, I will be your cover. I intend to see which of you is worth training—those who are going to waste my time will not survive this mission, and it is much better that you died before you are tortured for information. Now get going! This mission is on half an hour ago, and I want it done yesterday! This is supposed to be an easy mission, so if I catch any of you failing to come back to the base without at least one supply wagon before sunrise tomorrow by the time I return, I will be killing you on sight. If any of you are captured, __**ANY**__ of you, I will come back to that base and kill you myself!"_

_The rookies all dashed away in their respective groups and flew off in two directions. Chaos however, flew head on towards the enemy camp. Galian Beast's tribesmen were all cut off from logistics in this forest, and they are starving. Spearheading this siege is Hibikuro Mayumi, and she is getting much stronger and more daring so as to lure him out specifically. She knows that the only reason that a special operations team would be summoned into a battle is if it deals with either logistics or a siege that has carried on for a long time, hence why they are also called 'ninja'._

_Once he made it outside the base camp of General Hibikuro, he had everything ready—and now he will do battle! He picked out four small Molotov cocktails filled with 85% oil and 15% liquefied mako, and threw them overhead towards the enemy camp, setting the base on fire. The entire camp came to life with activity trying to put out the fires; all the while, the plan was taking into effect. Hibikuro came out from the tent herself and saw that the whole base was in a state of chaos before seeing her rival flapping his wings and flying away alone after throwing a few knives and killing her retinue. She simply summoned for a dragon and gave chase, but not before giving orders to watch the warehouses and calling for backup._

_It's working! She's chasing him down; and now all he has to do is to get her alone and they can duel again. Once he got far enough into the forest, he drew his katana "Death Penalty", stopped short, causing everyone else to fly ahead of him, and then began chasing them down and cutting down her ten bodyguards and dismounting Hibikuro herself using his "Chaos Saber" attack to enhance the reach of his solid sword with energy. As soon as she was down, they stood in the forest, staring each other down. Upon landing on the ground, Hibikuro prepared her chakram, and Chaos his katana in the base stance._

_After staring each other down for a few minutes, Hibikuro began the attack by charging in for a swing at Chaos, only to be dodged and countered with a left palm strike to her chin through the middle of her chakram. Before Chaos could swing his sword, he ducked under a mid-air knee strike aimed at the temporal bone in his skull and jumping back from the chakram before it could disembowel him with three swipes—barely escaping with three scratches on his torso. The battle continued on as both warriors clashed their weapons, being locked in a grapple, each one fighting to gain the upper hand over the other. When the amount of mana rippling from both Chaos and Hibikuro grew to heightened levels, the grapple was broken, and both were knocked back. Once Hibikuro regained her footing, she focused raw mana into her body, thus increasing her speed while Chaos simply did the same and dodged every swing she made with her chakram, while attempting to land a cut with his katana. If one didn't know any better, it would appear as if the two of them were dancing as every one of their moves were both graceful and practical—not one motion was wasted by simply dodging the enemy._

_As Chaos watched the sky, he noted that it was turning red, not to mention he heard more explosions in the direction of the camp. That was good! Now it's time to wrap this up! He immediately pulled out a smoke bomb from his pouch, and made his escape by throwing the bomb in front of Hibikuro, and making his escape. Galian Beast and his people will be getting their food now, but what really intrigued him was the fact that he had the chance to fight Hibikuro Mayumi this time. She really has grown up, and is now on his tier! Perhaps the next time, they will duel to the death, and no mission will be there to stop them…he was that proud of her progress…_

Vincent and Yuffie had their things ready for their trip. Today's itinerary would be to start for Vincent's old temple—it was a three day's walk east of Midgar and visit Master Tsuan, the head priest of that temple. "Vincent," said Elmyra, "would you mind playing something for me before you leave? It's been months since I've last heard a note from your lute, and I have a feeling that something will come to trouble me later. I'm looking to hear a song that will keep my cool in the future should that trouble come."

"I don't see why not," answered Vincent, shrugging his shoulders, "I'm not exactly in a hurry to see Master Tsuan, and besides, I could use the practice."

Once Vincent sat cross-legged against the wall, he began tuning his biwa and plucking each string with the pick to ensure that it was the right amount of tension. Before he could begin playing, the door opened, and Aeris walked into the room with a stranger holding her hips to him gently. His hair was as black as Vincent's, but it was short and spikier, and his eyes were like sapphires. "Oh, hi Mom," she said, "I didn't think anyone was home and…"

"It's alright dear," said Elmyra, "Vincent was just going to play something for me before he leaves. Would you like to join?"

Aeris looked up at her boyfriend with a smile, "Zack, would you be interested in hearing some music?"

Zack smiled back at Aeris, and said, "Sure thing! I'd like to hear Da Chao music for myself, see what it's like. Oh yeah, the name's Zack Fair, pleased to meet you Vincent."

"The pleasure is mine."

As soon as Vincent was done with the introductions, he set the pick to the biwa and started to play with a romantic origins story on his mind:

_Leviathan was flying around the skies of the newly-created world to bring rainclouds with him when one day, he encounters a phoenix sitting on the ground, with tears in her eyes. When he approached her, he asked, "My lady, why do you cry such tears?" the phoenix answered, "Because everyone else in my family has died, and I'm the only one left alive! I waited for everyone else to come back to life, but nothing—not even an egg!"_

_Taking pity upon the phoenix, Leviathan invited her to his home in the sky, and sought to comfort her. Since then, she did everything she could to repay the water god for his kindness, and he simply returned it. Eventually, as time went by, the two beings fell in love without the other knowing it until they both confessed their love for each other. The problem was that Leviathan was a water dragon, and the phoenix was a bird of fire…and so the two of them went to see the great Da Chao for assistance._

_Upon hearing their case, Da Chao realized that though they are of different species, their love for each other was the truest of all. And so, sympathizing with their plight, he changed the two of them into the form of what we would call humans today. That is how humans were created and why the dragon and the phoenix are the symbols of the royalty, even to this day._

Once he had finished playing, everyone else had opened their eyes after witnessing the love story being told through music. "Magnificent," said Zack, "this is such beautiful playing. I never thought that the lute would be such a fine instrument, even to this day when violins and pianos are starting to take the spotlight."

"I can feel the love in this song," said Aeris, "although I don't know the story behind it, I can still feel the love radiating from it."

"I think I've heard this song before," said Yuffie, "when I was six, my mom told me a story while playing this song on a samisen. I never thought that you would know this song."

"It's an old song," said Vincent, referring to Yuffie, "along with 'Chaos and the Cetra General', this is one of the songs taught to monks to help them train for the meditation up ahead, although this is the very first song they universally teach biwa and samisen players alike. After all, what better way to start one off on a journey of meditation than with a song about how humans were born to this world? After that, you're on your own to find your own answers."

"Why don't you write a sheet music for it though?" asked Elmyra.

"Because the point of this music is not to be remembered but to meditate; the biggest teaching of Da Chao is 'all is nothing and nothing is all'. Everything is transient, and so our music and artwork is such, even when it is our best, is meant to be here on this world for but a moment—however, it will forever be remembered in the flow of time."

Zack looked at Vincent with some thought, and said, "It makes sense in a way, but it is still sad. You live and you die, and you gain fame only to be forgotten in the end. But then again, that's life…it's not fair, but you deal with it in the end."

Vincent got up with Yuffie, and bowed low as he said, "I bid you farewell then. I believe we have overstayed our welcome, and would like to go see Master Tsuan. I thank you for your hospitality Elmyra." After that, both Yuffie and Vincent went out the door.

* * *

Three days had passed since Yuffie and Vincent had left the Gainsborough flower shop, but since then, Yuffie began to see Vincent as something else. As what, she cannot tell, but one thing for sure, no matter how much she tries to deny it, his sword is not interesting her as much…hmmm…she never did take the time to notice him fully, maybe she could peep on him next time he takes a bath and look at his…wait a minute, what is she thinking?! Of course his sword interests her, it's just that…no, bad thoughts! Bad! How dare she think dirty thoughts at a time like this! She just needs to steal that katana, and she'll be able to rid herself of them; although she wouldn't mind if he were the one to take her innocence—a shame that he had to be a monk though…a shame and a waste of such good looks.

"We're close," said Vincent, "I can smell lavenders from here, and I can hear some chanting from the distance. It should be no further than one kilometer east of here."

"Hey Vince?" asked Yuffie, "I overheard from Elmyra that you were looking for something. I want to know…"

"It's something I don't want to talk about," interrupted Vincent, anger tainting his voice ever so slightly, "it's painful for me to recollect it—both on my mind and my soul."

Yuffie looked to Vincent, not about to be brought down by such a thing as a man who refuses to open up, with anger flaring in her eyes. "Vincent, despite what you think, I actually care. You may think that I don't notice, but I do. Every day, I see you with that lost look in your face—as if you're looking for something, but you can't find it. You even had to go see Elmyra to put you on the right path. I really want to help!"

"I appreciate the gesture Yuffie, but it's too painful. I really don't want to retell it—I'm afraid the pain will come back if I do…and I'm also afraid that if I burden you with it, you will be destroyed by it. The last thing I want is for someone to die all because of something from my past."

Yuffie simply sighed, and kept on guiding Vincent over to the destination. She really did want to help, but he thinks he's protecting her by keeping her in the black. If that's the case, then she won't press the matter any further. He'll tell her when he feels it's right to tell her. As she kept on walking forward, she noted that he was right about the scent—there were a lot of lavenders out on this field, and way across it, roughly three quarters of a kilometer away was a temple. Sure enough, there was chanting from the monks inside, as well as the ringing of a large brass bell.

Once they both made it to the temple gate, Vincent knocked on the large double doors. A few minutes had passed until the doors had opened. "Who is there?" asked a middle-aged monk from the crack of the door, "I wish to see Master Tsuan," said Vincent, "tell him that Brother Valentine is here." With that, the monk closed the door. Vincent and Yuffie sat there for another ten minutes before the door was opened again. "Brother Valentine?" asked the monk, "Master Tsuan will be seeing you now. If you'll follow me…" The monk offered his hand, and guided Vincent through halls of monks watching him and Yuffie pass on by until they got to a large doorway. The middle-aged monk knocked three times on the door.

"Master Tsuan, he is here!"

"Very well then, let him in Brother Tuesti."

Brother Tuesti pushed the door open, and both Vincent and Yuffie walked in to see a bald monk in his late sixties with a red dot on his forehead sitting on a cushion in front of an open fire. "Brother Valentine," said the monk, "it has been a year since you last visited. You look well."

"As do you master."

Master Tsuan got up, and walked towards Vincent. "I take it you are here for purification as usual?"

"And to think a bit."

"The chamber will be ready tomorrow. When it is time, I'll send Brother Tuesti for you. In the meantime, now you have a head start on your thinking. I shall see you tomorrow, Brother Valentine."

Purification is the only way to relieve him of the heart trouble roughly five days prior. It was all caused by that thing in his chest—he found it a very painful experience to have it placed in there, but it was necessary for him to contain his other half. Every day, as his mind continues to wallow in darkness, that thing will continue to plague him as it reflects the current state of his soul, and so the purification is there to help him cleanse his soul and thus make it less painful to carry it.

"How does purification work?" asked Yuffie, "It's simple really," began Vincent, "I go in a chamber with a hole on top, and sit in a shallow pool under the hole to meditate. Meanwhile, several monks surround me with a materia in front of them and start chanting sutras to amplify the power of the purification. Once it's done, I'll have a smaller chance of falling unconscious like last time."

"Why do some people go through this?"

"They do this because sometimes, you miss a step in the road to penance, and so this will help you to cleanse your spirit to start all over…it's a baptism if you will. I do this as a kind of maintenance run for my spirit. Now sleep. If you still want to follow me for my sword tomorrow, you'll need all the rest you can get."

Vincent watched her sleep. She was an innocent soul indeed—Yuffie was not exactly what one would call a traditionalist, and that spunk she had shown up to this point only made him like her even more. Hopefully, she'll wise up and leave him. It's for her own good, for if the assassins and bounty hunters after him won't kill her, then it's likely that he may one day lose control of his dark side, and kill her himself. He would rather live the rest of his life in misery than to kill the daughter of his best friends. Perhaps one day, when this has all blown over, he can travel all over the world with her—after he tells Master Tsuan that he intends to leave the monastery to become mundane of course.

After knowing that she was safe, his eyes slowly closed, and he fell to sleep with "Quicksilver" in his arms.

* * *

_It's been five days since the attack on Galian Beast's lands—the special operations team that Chaos had with him only had eight survivors, all of whom had only managed to hijack two supply wagons and escape with them. However, as it turned out, it didn't really matter—Galian Beast and his people retreated to the south. They were simply outnumbered and overrun, and there were not enough supplies stolen for them to counterattack, and now Hibikuro finally has that cowardly bastard on the run!_

_After making a breakthrough by crossing into the demon territory, she found a village of demon civilians carrying out their business, but upon further inspection, and with the use of scouts it is revealed that Chaos lives in this village as he was appointed head retainer of this place. The Cetra Council, with express permission from Chairwoman Ifalna herself, had approved for this expedition, and so Mayumi may as well bring some cartographers with her forces so as to ensure that she does not go back to the council empty-handed after her campaign against Chaos has ended. She then noticed everything about the village—the place was centered on a gigantic arena, and since yesterday, everyone took a break from what they were doing to train in the martial arts…even children were trained from day one to learn how to punch and focus mana into themselves._

_While everybody was drilling, Chaos stepped out from the crowd, and made sure to correct the form of everyone during their drills should they misstep or their stance was improper. Walking among the crowds aside from Chaos were the four members of the special operations team that robbed and sabotaged her were assisting in the drilling members of the village. One more female demon was not in the group, and she was overseeing a sparring match between one hundred demons paired off against each other for a total of fifty matches._

_This would make sense as the number of the original demon race are fewer in number than any other member of the alliance—which is why among the bodies that have been taken count, there are rarely any true demons among them, and so they are trained to be elite warriors from the start. Even though she hated Chaos for the murder of her father, Mayumi had to give him credit—he was actually a good leader and teacher. It was actually a shame that she had to sneak through the village to assassinate him—and a waste, as the council could have used such talent from him._

_Just as she was about to strike, Mayumi saw a blue light appear in the sky as it fell down to the ground from far away. A gust of wind followed the impact, roughly with enough force to be considered a gale wind. "Ayame, send word to the shogun, tell him what you saw, while I go take a look for myself what it is we are dealing with," said Chaos, turning to the demon overseeing the sparring matches before she flew away with her orders received, and then to his four protégés, "Hiruko, Mai, Shinji, and Mao, you are to defend the village at all costs while I am gone. This is the only place that we can call home—I don't intend to leave it unguarded. Until I get back, you are all in charge…remember what happened to the other two troops I picked out, and why they both die died. I don't want to lose any more people than necessary, especially in these times of war—I can't afford to have these people wiped out because of a lack in teamwork and organization. Hiruko, I'm counting on you to lead your colleagues well…you must trust them, and they must trust you…as I do. Do not fail me. The rest of you will follow me...someone has to report back to Omega if I cannot."_

"_Yes sir!" said the demon called Hiruko. With that, Chaos took "Death Penalty" in his hand, and flew away. Mayumi simply grabbed her chakram, and started following him from the shadows…_

Yuffie woke up from another strange dream involving Hibikuro Mayumi and the demon Chaos…why is she getting such a dream? And is Vincent having them as well? As she looked on the floor for the monk, she saw a note on the floor where his futon was supposed to be.

_Have gone to the purification._

_Head to the kitchen across from here to get your breakfast._

_I would recommend leaving me now…I'm much too dangerous for you._

_If you care about me, you'll forget about me—I'm not worth it. _

_-Vincent_

Yuffie was not happy about it. She didn't want to leave him! She's not leaving without that sword of his and that's that! Oh shut the hell up! Who the hell was she fucking kidding? She wasn't interested in that fucking sword anymore! She didn't care that she wouldn't be making a profit for a while! She didn't even care about seeing the world anymore! Seeing the world would now be meaningless if he weren't there! If Vincent thought that leaving her out of his business would drive her away, he's dead wrong…it's too late for that.

She simply sat up and walked out towards the lavender fields. She needed to get out and sort out her thoughts and feelings. Obviously, she has something for him, and so she will stay outside until she has her mind straightened out. No matter where she goes, the scent of lavender or jasmine had always helped to clear her head, and in this place, it was no different. Now she had plenty of time to think over her thoughts and feelings for this monk. "Tough time?" asked a man behind her. Yuffie turned and saw who it was that spoke—it was a blond man in his mid-twenties, not bad-looking, but he wearing nothing but white, and sitting on the lavender fields overlooking the temple. "Yeah," she answered, a bit suspicious of this stranger, "I was trying to get my thoughts together. You know, clear my head?"

The stranger sighed, and said, "Ah, I felt that before. In fact, I think you and I have something in common. We're both in love, but we are not sure if it is true or not."

"W-wait a minute, I never said anything about love!"

The stranger chuckled. "You didn't have to. It was written all over your face. But the biggest question for you, Miss Kisaragi, is if you know anything about the man you traveled with?"

Before Yuffie could reach for her scroll, she heard a clicking sound, and felt something at the side of her head. She glanced to the right, and saw that this stranger was holding a flintlock to her temporal bone. "I must admit, bounty hunting for my old man is really fun! It's challenging work, out-of-doors; I guarantee I won't go hungry! Well, not that I ever will, considering that my dad is King Shinra himself, but if I ever get kicked out of the castle, I'd want to do this."

Yuffie looked at the blond in surprise. This brat was King Shinra's son Rufus?

* * *

Vincent sat in a pool of water in the middle of the chamber directly under the air hole, surrounded on eight sides by a monk with a sphere of materia and a scroll and "Quicksilver" set on the side right next to him. Once done, he began to meditate, as the monks surrounding him began chanting the sutras. As the monks chanted, the materia orbs began to glow a soft blue light while the ground underneath Vincent began to turn into a pillar of the same-colored light. He could feel the purifying effects of the mako crystals he was sitting above.

He heard the door to the chamber breaking in and in walked four intruders: a young redhead with a short steel staff roughly four feet in length, a bald dark-skinned man with sunglasses, a blond woman with a musket in her hands, and a Wutainese man with a red dot in the center of his forehead carrying cross-spear. He's had several encounters with these four before—in fact, no matter how much he tried to be different, the truth remained that he was one of them: a monster in the literal sense. "We're here for the man you are all purifying," said the Wutainese man, "let us have him, and we'll leave the temple quietly."

"Tseng," said Master Tsuan, walking towards the spearman, "you know full well what we are doing and why. If we don't purify him, lives will be lost—even yours. What you are doing now is no different from disturbing a doctor in the middle of an operation. Take your Turks and your business outside when we are done…that is all I ask of you as your father."

Tseng simply looked at his father with a dirty look upon his face. "I'm taking him, and that's that. If you refuse to let me have him now, then we have no choice…"

* * *

"That man you're following around; this Vincent Valentine," said Rufus, "just how much do you know about him?" "Nothing much," she said, and that was true, "except that he was a friend of my dad's."

Rufus simply nodded his head, and said, "A friend of your dad's eh? Well did you know that in his life, Vincent Valentine was responsible for a great number of assassinations since the day he was actually sixteen? Oh yeah, he and your dad were friends from what I heard—in fact, I've heard rumors that he actually worked for your dad in helping him to unite the Island Kingdoms. Your dad's like fifty-four, correct? Well Vincent's been alive for as long as your old man yeah? Doesn't it strike you odd that he looks younger than your dad?"

As Yuffie contemplated this, she countered, "How do you know? For all you know, Vincent could have been the youngest in his circle of friends. What are you getting at Prince Shinra?" She spat the name 'Shinra' from her mouth like poison.

"Vincent Valentine is not human, princess, not anymore. And you'll be seeing why shortly after I…" Rufus couldn't finish his sentence, as something happened—an explosion had resulted in the temple and knocked him away. Yuffie simply looked in horror as a column of soft blue light shot out from the top of the temple in the middle of the temple during the explosion. As she gazed into the light, she could make out something in the middle of the light—something or someone was in midair, and then it disappeared…Yuffie immediately ran to the temple and towards the purification chamber.

* * *

Vincent watched as all the monks in the chamber were being slaughtered—first Master Tsuan was killed by his own son, and then the other Turks began the attack. The anger and sadness had filled his heart until Vincent started to cry out in pain. He grabbed his chest, and bent forward as he felt something starting to pulse in his back. The next thing that happened, he heard the sound of flesh and bone ripping their way from under both of his scapula. His cries of pain continued as the purification turned from filling his heart with peace to overcharging it with more pain, while he saw that a pair of bat wings had sprouted from his back, and covered his crouched body. His skin began to turn indigo, and a pair of horns had sprouted from his forehead and started growing and curving backwards for a more streamlined look somewhat resembling a crown.

Once the transformation was complete, what was left of Vincent opened its wings and fanned out his body, creating a gust of wind within the chamber that caused an explosion—destroying the purification chamber. The demon found itself levitating roughly fifty meters over the remains of a stone room, with a few people looking up as he descended slowly upon the middle of the room. It then looked to four people starting to transform—and then it picked up "Quicksilver", transforming it instantly from a shikomizue-style sword to a koshirae-style and placed it in his monk's sash the way a samurai wears his sword.

The unarmed demon attacked, and performed a roundhouse kick only to have his leg grabbed, and be thrown aside like a rag doll by it.

The demon with the steel stick simply charged in and swung his weapon around wildly with a berserker's enthusiasm only to be stopped on the first swing by a draw of the sword, and then dodged at every subsequent swing of his stick before he was eviscerated in one cut with an under-handed swing, and then stabbed in the spine, followed by a decapitation.

The female demon simply aimed her musket at the indigo demon, and saw her opportunity when the unarmed demon got back up and grabbed the new player in a sleeper hold only to take a stomp to the instep, and flipped over by the forearm just as she was about to make a headshot. She missed her target due to him vanishing into thin air, and tried to look for him in the open space—she then saw Tseng running towards her with his spear ready to be thrown, only to realize that he was too late for whatever he was going to do: she felt something stab her in the back, shred past her right kidney, and then she watched as a clawed arm tore open a hole through her abdominis rectus before it was pulled back out, and she was used as a shield from Tseng's spear.

Tseng watched in absolute horror as his thrown spear impaled his colleague through her chest, and then his target lowered her body to the floor carefully, and closed her eyes in reverie before he stood up and turned to Tseng. As he started walking towards him, the indigo demon spoke in a tongue long forgotten to the world. This was not a simple transformation—no…a simple transformation cannot be this powerful. Something was very wrong with this picture…it's as if Valentine no longer existed. He simply charged what mana he had left, and attacked the dark blue beast with everything he had, only to be grabbed by the neck with one hand, and then have it snapped at the twitch of his opponent's thumb before he was thrown down.

The indigo demon then turned to see the unarmed demon fleeing—he was not worth killing. These knock-offs were nothing but insects to him. But he did sense something nearby…something familiar…something that made him feel warm a long time ago…as he recalled from his memories, this thing made him feel at peace. As he turned around, he saw a girl no older than twenty standing in place, frozen in fear…

* * *

Yuffie could not believe what she saw…a winged and red-eyed demon was tearing four weaker demons to pieces. And when that thing was done, it started moving towards her…she couldn't run—she was too scared to do that. But the way that creature was moving, it was as if it didn't want to frighten her as it moved its right hand slowly and gently. Once it made it to Yuffie, it reached out its clawed hand; she closed her eyes briefly and then opened them again when she felt that it touched her gently on the cheek and brought its hand down in the same way.

She then watched as the demon reached its hand under her chin and pulled her up slightly while it lowered itself with closed eyes. It was then that she realized the identity of the demon—it was Vincent! Before she could say a word, Yuffie realized that she was locked in a kiss as Vincent grabbed her in a hug—raising her temperature to the heat which was only exchanged between lovers…the next thing she knew, she saw him slump to the floor shirtless while he reverted back to his human form. What the hell was going on?

* * *

_**A/N: I borrowed from Chinese culture for this Biwa song. The dragon represents the emperor, and the empress is the phoenix—both are symbols of longevity and immortality, but the dragon is the more masculine of the pair.**_

_**Translations and Vocabulary:**_

_**Samisen—also called a "shamisen"; it is a three-stringed Japanese analogue to the banjo, played with a bachi. It has no frets.**_

_**Shakuhachi—a bamboo flute, used by some monks as a truncheon. It also has a dirtier meaning nowadays.**_

_**Sutra—an East-Indian scripture, usually a Buddhist one.**_

_**Mana—mystic energy; RPG people would refer to it and count it as MP.**_

_**Koshirae—the normal mount for a katana being used that includes a sheath, hand guard, and a handle, as well as butt caps for the sheath and handle.**_

_**

* * *

**_

_**Songs Played:**_

"_**Eternal" by Rin**_

"_**The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" by Smashing Pumpkins**_


	5. Sakura Branches

_**A/N: And now Vincent tells all—no point in hiding everything from her anymore; and besides, since Yuffie is most definitely involved, there's no turning back for her now…

* * *

**_

_Chaos and his scouting party had arrived at the approximate location where the light had landed. What they saw surprised them into a state of awe—what they saw was a female being simply standing there; what made her stand out from the regular Cetra or human was the fact that she had bluish skin, long and flowing white hair, and a single angelic wing sprouting from her left scapula. She was both naked and well-built—the very body and face that any woman would kill for. As soon as she opened her eyes, it was revealed that they were the color of emeralds…once she lifted her arm, a line of the forest had been leveled as all the trees were knocked down by a large amount of energy as she laughed and then destroyed another bit of the forest with a force wave before walking away into the trees._

"_Everyone, we're going to retreat now," whispered Chaos, and right before one of his protégés could say a word, he hushed him with his hand, "this new player seems to be too powerful for us to fight at the moment. If we fight her now, then this trip would have been wasted—she'll very likely kill us on sight. We need to escape now while we have the chance and report this to the shogun—after that, we'll coordinate an attack when we've planned it carefully. As of this moment, I doubt she's noticed us, so I think now is our opportunity to flee."_

_Chaos had been proven wrong as one of his protégés had been impaled from behind and screaming very loudly as his spine had been ripped out by the target. "Everybody run!" At his word, everyone opened their wings and began to fly away quickly, except for Chaos, who had found himself locked in combat with the alien as she dove at him with her claws only to be blocked with his sword. After pushing away this new player and gaining her interest, he simply stared her down while she did the same._

"_I am Chaos," he said, readying "Death Penalty" in his hands and fanning his wings out, "leader of the Demon Special Operations Forces, and second-in-command to the shogun Omega."_

_The alien simply smirked, and materialized a single-edged sword in her right hand…it was so long that would have been considered a nodachi-class sword were it not for the fact that the handle was only fit for a normal katana. "I am JENOVA," said the alien, "the killer of all worlds!"_

_Without another word, Chaos charged in at JENOVA with his sword prepared to make a swipe at her face only to slide himself under a quick sideways slash between her legs, and then performing a low sweep kick to try and trip the alien before he followed through by turning around and performing and upwards underhanded slash. JENOVA simply leapt over the kick, and used the slash to launch herself into the air before she got ready to perform a downwards slash only to watch as Chaos simply rolled away to the side, and fired a barrage of mana needles from his palm before she jumped back, and used her nodachi to try and eviscerate him using only the tip._

_Chaos barely dodged that hit, and managed to escape with only a graze to his chest before he simply charged some pink energy into his left hand, and shot it out as a blazing fireball only to watch as JENOVA caught it with the tip of her right finger, amplify it with her own mana, and then fire it back at him. The shot was way too quick to dodge, and so Chaos had no choice but to deflect it away from him—his defensive action was met by JENOVA charging in for a stab. He simply stepped aside, and hacked off JENOVA's arm holding the sword, only to watch in horror as it simply grew back from the stump, grabbed the sword, and nearly decapitated Chaos._

_This was not going well…if he did not end this soon, then that deep cut across his pectoralis and abdominis rectus muscles would be the second worst thing to worry about—especially given that sword of hers slows his regeneration time when it draws blood. Chaos immediately sheathed "Death Penalty", and charged energy into both of his hands, causing crimson bolts of lightning to be arcing between his fingertips into a sphere of swirling black energy. Once done, he held the black sphere in his right hand before reeling it back and slamming it into the ground, summoning a giant disembodied skull from the depths of Hell, staring down at JENOVA. The skull opened its mouth, and charged in black mana from the surroundings, and fired it at a surprised JENOVA, with flaming skulls flying around the beam and chasing the alien down before exploding into her as the black mana engulfed her form._

_Chaos was panting as the skull dissipated while he was looking at the dust clouds forming…performing the "Satan Slam" took the most out of his mana reserves, but it was nonetheless his most powerful attack—even Omega had to admit that this rivaled his own ultimate attack. "A well-performed attack," said a voice from within the dust, "and a ton of potential to go with it as well; you've even forced me to create a barrier…however, you've only succeeded in stoking my anger!" Chaos looked on in terror at the dust cloud, and saw JENOVA grabbing him by the neck with rage in her face. She was covered in burn marks that were slowly regenerating by the minute._

"_A big shame—you would have made the perfect mate for me were it not for the fact that you had to play the hero…such a waste of such good looks and beautiful red eyes I might add, but business is business. I'm going to kill this world and travel to the next one to do the same. And there's nothing you can do to stop me!" Chaos was struggling—he was trying to get out of her chokehold, but he starting falling out of consciousness…_

Yuffie didn't know what to think as she woke up cradling Vincent's head in her lap as soon as she sat up. As she dragged his heavy and unconscious body away from the temple with his cane and biwa in tow roughly two days ago now, she heard the worst things said from all the monks. "Monster", "Demon", and "Defiler" were the names given to him from all but Brother Tuesti…as it turned out, he was to be Master Tsuan's successor, and ordered that all the monks not touch a hair on Vincent's head due to his killing of the demons before anyone else got hurt; however, due to what happened in the chamber, Vincent was forever excommunicated—now he was no longer a monk, but simply a travelling musician. How would he take this set of news when he wakes up?

Just then, she heard something below her and realized that it was Vincent groaning as he started opening those beautiful rubies that were his eyes. "Where am I?" he asked, as he started sitting up, "What happened?" "You don't remember?" Yuffie asked back and looking at him with sympathy in her eyes. Vincent began to recollect everything, and then his eyes opened in shock…he remembered.

"Did I hurt you?"

Yuffie blushed, remembering the kiss. "No, you were actually gentle with me—although I was a bit scared when I saw you. I won't say the same about those demons you killed in the purification chamber though. You tore through them as though they were naught but rags."

"What else happened while I was unconscious?"

Yuffie looked down in sadness afraid to look him in the eye. "Actually, the monks just excommunicated you and basically chased us out."

Vincent simply sighed and brought Yuffie closer to him in a hug. "Do you think you'll be okay after this?" she asked, "I mean, I know that you needed to think while you were with them."

"No, that's all right. I was planning on quitting in the long run anyway. Too many protocols—and besides, I never really liked many of the monks I met. I needed them only because I needed something to help me soothe my soul."

Yuffie gathered her courage. He tried to protect her by keeping her out of his business, and he failed. Now she was involved with him, for better or worse, and nothing would separate her ties with him—there was no turning back for her now. "I think you owe me an explanation Vincent," she said, looking at him with determination in her storm-gray eyes, "after what I've seen in the purification chamber, you have lost the ability to protect me from your business."

Vincent looked to the ground and sighed as his shoulders sagged; even Yuffie could tell that he was cornered now, and that he had no choice. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Maybe you can start with what happened in there."

Vincent looked back in his mind and gathered himself. "As you can see, I'm same as those demons you've seen me kill… they are humans injected with a kind of substance that was supposed to allow them to bond with and transform into demons. Court Magician Hojo had discovered this substance, and decided to synthesize it into a potion, therefore starting his work in a top-secret experiment for the Shinra Kingdom. This was coded as 'Project: Turk', and was intended to make the ultimate assassins for his sponsor, known to everyone as the Turks.

"He supposed that the project was a success but needed more tweaking, but nonetheless the potion was ingested by numerous people willing to do whatever the Shinra Kingdom asked as long as they were paid a handsome sum. Little did they realize that as soon as they took the potion, they would find themselves writhing in pain, and their humanity would be slipping away so that only the demon that shared their bodies devoured their souls if their wills were weak, turning them into fiends instead of demons. After that, the process would be irreversible—they would simply become fiends for life and they would not be able to become human again."

Yuffie was confused, but also angry at the man who had done so much harm to many people with just a potion. "But where did he get such a thing to start this…monstrosity? I don't understand it."

Vincent simply heaved a long sigh. "He synthesized the potion from me…he used my blood while I was alive to make that evil concoction."

"That's terrible!"

"Even worse was that he had found something interesting about me some ten years after he considered 'Project: Turk' a learning curve project and synthesized the substance from my blood into a mass-produced drug in limited quantities. Upon making this discovery, Hojo had pitched another idea for a science experiment to King Shinra…he brought it up to the king that I had not aged for ten years. I was twenty-seven when Hojo began experimenting on me for 'Project: Turk', and not once during the ten years I was tied down to that stretcher with acupuncture needles and IV tubes stuck into my body, did I age a single year…

"Upon learning of this, Hojo started experimenting on me even further, and with even worse of a fervor controlling him. I have had more needles stuck into me than before, and he started extracting more from my blood to study it…all to no avail. He never even paid attention to his own son for even a second. It was as if these experiments from the last project had sent him down the path of insanity…and with the promise of immortality on hand, he developed a god complex. The reason I say that is because I know he was not always like this—I think I have myself to blame for this."

Yuffie was again confused. "Why do you think it's your fault that Hojo did what he did to you? Why do you think he was driven insane?"

Vincent looked to the ground in shame. "Because Hojo was part of the circle of friends in my childhood. At first, when he found me bled to death, his goal was to bring me back to life and then look for everyone to start a reunion. It was then that he started Project: Turk, and then went on to Project: Divinity that he was corrupted. If only I could have stayed alive long enough to treat my own wounds, then he probably would not have needed to make the attempt to resurrect me, and his soul would have been good still.

"Anyway, back to the story—just before he could initiate Project: Divinity, Hojo's wife decided to grow a heart and resist her husband. She sent her assistant to set me free, and gave me back 'Quicksilver' with a message from her while she distracted Hojo. Her message was, 'I'm sorry'. After that, I joined the temple to help me think before I acted—and then everything else twenty years after that is history."

Yuffie sighed; this man was taking responsibility for everyone. Perhaps that was one of the things that would have made him leader of the group. She had another pair of questions in her mind. "Who is your real family? And if what you're saying is true, then why aren't you as old as my dad?"

Vincent had a pensive look on his face as he looked back at Yuffie. "What have you heard about the 'phoenix people' of the northern islands?"

Yuffie wondered where he was going with this. "Just a bedtime story from my mom …they were a race of people that supposedly descended from the same ancestor as the Kisaragi royal line who could also change forms…I think they were called the 'Hinotori' tribe, and that they were very few in number. They lived in the dense forests of the northern islands isolated from the world until Dharma Kisaragi, my great-grandfather, started the campaign to unite all the island kingdoms and tribes…apparently the Hinotori tribe had something that Dharma wanted. Mom wasn't too clear on the details…she was about to tell me something about the family that made them stand out among other people when she froze and ran off. Next thing I know, I found myself following her out of bed and overhearing her saying something to my dad about owing someone an apology for what Dharma did."

There was sadness in Vincent's eyes when he looked away. "The Hinotori tribe refused to intermarry with the Kisaragi and the other united island kingdoms and tribes. Dharma Kisaragi wanted to add the princess of the tribe to his list of wives and concubines, but she refused, and what followed a few days later was a surprise attack on the Hinotori tribe at the crack of dawn. Dharma Kisaragi, worried that the princess had found someone else, feared that one day, if he did not do something, he would be looking down at a tribe of angry guerilla warriors that could all transform just as easily as the Kisaragi royal line, and so he ordered for everyone of the Hinotori tribe to be terminated, and the island kingdom of 'Hijima' was to be destroyed with no evidence of the Hinotori tribe's existence left behind."

Yuffie simply looked at Vincent with shock. "N-no…this can't be…how could he do such a thing?"

"It's actually funny how greed can plant its seeds from the very beginning. Dharma Kisaragi did not unite the tribes simply for the sake of peace—he wanted to gain even greater power when his original intent was not for selfishness, but for the good of all the islands. If he had not been blinded by his own greed, the Hinotori would have joined the Kisaragi in their quest to unite the kingdoms under one banner…that was probably why the princess refused to marry him. In any case, that greed led to the devastation of the Hinotori tribe, and the deaths of all its members—all but one. The princess of the Hinotori tribe managed to sail away and escape…hiding her eyes and disguising herself as a blind acupuncturist and samisen player, for a bounty was placed on anyone having red eyes. Eventually, while on the run, the princess somehow got pregnant, and had a baby boy—that boy was raised until he was six by the princess until she witnessed the baby boy being bonded with the spirit of a demon…she was attacked while protecting the boy during his coming-of-age ceremony. When the boy and the demon were finally bonded, the princess knew she didn't have much longer to live as she had spent the last hours of her life defending the boy, and so she put up the boy for adoption in an orphanage nearby the town of Nibelheim, and the reverend there took him in as his son as per her dying request, and named him…"

Yuffie's eyes widened in realization when she interrupted him, "Vincent Valentine…" Oh god…Vincent was the last living member of that dying line? And her great-grandfather was to blame for that? This could not be real! "Xiaoyin knew that story about the Hinotori tribe because I told it to her once and omitting parts of the story," said Vincent, "I never finished the story—I suppose she pieced together the rest of it a long time after we paid a visit to the islands where the Hinotori tribe once lived during our quest to overthrow Dharma…we succeeded, and all would have been celebrated. Godo named me his advisor—but I chose to continue travelling…I felt that I had more to see before even coming to that position. A while into my travels, I was attacked by a fiend outside the Shinra kingdom and bled to death after fighting long and hard with it—that was the moment when Hojo learned of my first death and hell began for me the second he found my body."

"First death? What are you talking about?"

"The Hinotori tribe had a unique ability aside from their ability to bond with and transform into spirits and their natural mastery in the art of guerilla warfare—one that can only be possible to those who are actually related by blood to the tribe. We were able to resurrect ourselves after dying once, and reverting back to the way we were at the peak of our strength, and remaining that way forever until we were killed again. For example, if it took you sixteen years for you to reach the peak of your power since you were born and then die the first time, you will remain sixteen years old for the rest of your life until you are killed a second time—this is a once-only kind of deal, meaning that after we are killed the second time, there's no coming back. We were called the 'phoenix people' because of this ability…and it's because of this ability that Dharma wiped out the majority of my tribes men, and that Hojo has become corrupted."

Yuffie took in everything she heard…she was very much confused at first, but upon hearing Vincent's long tales, everything began to fall into place. "What did you have to think about after your escape?" Vincent simply answered, "I wanted to think about why Lucrecia saved me…for you see, Lucrecia was Hojo's wife, and also part of our circle of friends. In the meantime, I had to think about what I was going to do now that I was free. So far, I found that the biggest priority on my list was to show Hojo the error of his ways, and originally I had planned to kill myself upon finishing my work—but that all changed because of one thing happening to me."

Yuffie was shocked that he would kill himself, after everything that happened to him, he still wants to die? Still, she wanted to press on. "What happened?"

For the first time, she could see a small smile creeping up on his lips as he turned to look at her. "You happened, and gave me a reason to live. When I came to know you, you changed my plans. And now, my plans include to quitting the temple, and travelling the world with you."

That last sentence had touched her heart. Yuffie could see that he was serious about that. Well, at least now Vincent had something crossed off his list of things to do. "So what's next on our itinerary?"

"Why the capital of course, I want to pay respects to your mother—and it would be a good opportunity for you to do the same…I've heard rumor that she died some ten years after you were born. I find it a waste of such a good soul and a pretty woman when I heard that she died taking your little brother with her due to complications. It's been a while since I last visited her, and being a travelling monk at the time didn't help me any in keeping up with anniversaries."

"But what about meeting up with my dad?"

"If I am not meant to meet him on that day, then I am meant to meet him on the day after that, it won't matter. If he shows up, he shows up…then I'll work things out from there. The point is that I want to pay respects to a departed friend of mine."

Yuffie knew what this meant. She was actually getting a bit homesick, and the capital was only a week's walk from here to the west, given that she dragged his body all the way from the temple for the past day and a half, and the anniversary of her mother's death was exactly on the day that they get to the capital.

* * *

Meanwhile…

"This had better be good Rude!" said the voice of an old man working at a lab table. "Court Magician, the other elites are dead," said Rude, "Tseng, Reno, and Elena were all killed while we were trying to capture the target…Rufus and I were the only survivors, but being a normal human being, he has been crippled and so we had to put him in a wheelchair."

"Humph! The young master should have heeded my warning! Valentine is too dangerous a prey, given his family bloodline. It's no wonder—only the Kisaragi and the Hinotori are able to truly bond with the demons that possess them whereas we can only share the same bodies with them but never bond. That's why everyone who lacks sufficient willpower would become fiends for life. And it seems that I've managed to make improvements on this…which means that you my friend are now obsolete!"

Before Rude could ask a question, he finally found his answer all too late; he felt a blade pierce him from behind, and then watch as it continued to run its full 6-foot length through his chest before filleting him in one swipe as soon as the guard made it to his back without allowing any blood to spill. "You know who the target is don't you?" asked Hojo to a group of four men in the shadows, all of them had glowing emerald eyes, the one with the ridiculously long sword simply nodded for 'yes', "Good. I want you to bring him to me _**ALIVE**_. He's no good to me dead, for all my research will be for naught if you kill him, and I have a hypothesis that needs to be confirmed. If you succeed, mother will be very proud of the four you. Now be gone, I have much to think about!"

As soon as the four shadows disappeared, Hojo then turned to the statue of the beautiful one-winged angel maiden right next to him locked away in chains and mystic seals written on paper. She was waiting to be released, and she was being very patient. As soon as Vincent is brought before him, he would be able to catch up with his old friend so to speak. As a matter of fact, he knew almost everything about Vincent as a child, the way he worked his way unknowingly to being Godo's second-in-command, and the voice of wisdom among his friends. It would be a lie for Hojo to say that Vincent did not make him jealous—he was everything that he himself wasn't; beauty, strength, wisdom, all of the things he was lacking—the things he desired in his life. It would probably be a correct statement to say that Hojo worshipped Vincent as a kind of god while he was younger…Vincent was the exact form of perfection he wanted to have even as a child.

Ever since he had unveiled this discovery in a cave underneath the Shinra Kingdom, _**she**_ had opened his eyes to the folly of worshipping Vincent…how no matter how hard he prayed his god would not be able to answer his desire for everything he had. _**She**_ had opened his eyes to the fact that he was but a demigod—the step down from being a god, a substitute, but nonetheless a preview for what perfection and godliness was like, and that _**she**_ was the true god…well, goddess now that he knew who she was. The sacrifice of his dearly beloved wife would not be in vain—she would see the glory in _**her**_ light, and make all his friends realize the error of their ways in their veneration of Vincent Valentine, if that's his real name. As a matter of fact, as soon as she returns, Lucrecia would be forgiven for her slight transgression against him in helping Vincent to escape. But going back to his comforting madness, _**she**_ had promised to bestow the mantle of godhood to him, and make HIM the venerated one—the god of the group, and so that even Vincent would be the one to worship him this time.

Oh the joy! He would become perfect soon! Just like Valentine, he would become beautiful, but he won't be a demigod like him! Dear god no! He would become a god, just like _**her**_! And the world will come to fear his name and bow before his might!

* * *

_Before JENOVA could land the killing blow on Chaos, she found that her arm had been cut off at the junction where her radula and ulna joined with her humeris to form the elbow. Make no mistake about it, Mayumi wanted Chaos dead, it's just it would be a cold day in the thirteen levels of Hell if she lets someone else kill the demon first. No, Chaos was her kill, and her kill alone—nobody else was allowed to kill him, for she must avenge her father!_

_After learning from the battle with Chaos, Mayumi knew that she had to step it up a notch. And so, she began to transform herself into a being with a pair of large golden wings while clutching her chakram in her hand, and charging in for the attack. JENOVA simply regenerated her arm, and began matching her steps with that of Mayumi, and then ending with a straight kick to her face, knocking Mayumi to the ground with the quick attack. Before she could finish her off with an axe kick, something moved quickly to slice the offending body part at the patella._

_As soon as she lost her balance, JENOVA simply regenerated quickly and saw that Chaos had somehow recuperated quickly, and slashed her leg off in a single draw. The next thing she noticed was that he had grabbed the downed Mayumi from the ground, and set her back up. "You can kill me for your father later," he said, "right now we have more pressing matters to attend to. If we don't work together, then she'll most definitely win, and there won't be any world for us to live in. She'll just destroy them all. Truce?"_

_Mayumi was reluctant, but he was right. They really did need to get over their differences if they wanted to survive. She simply nodded, and they both began to fight. "Teamwork's not going to help you any," said JENOVA, "I'm more powerful than anything else in this world! And once I'm done with killing this planet, I will take your friend's seed and create more people to have fun with!"_

_The attack was started—Chaos and Mayumi both vanished into thin air, followed by JENOVA, making everything go into light speed. JENOVA had hardened her skin to the point of it becoming armor, and grabbed the two blades aiming to dice her in half before she forced them back at their respective owners. Mayumi landed, and stuck her chakram into the ground, trailing it into the ground, causing sparks to fly before she pulled the ring out, and slashed at JENOVA, performing the "Greased Lightning" attack. The slash had been amplified by the heat generated by dragging the chakram along the ground, followed by a reverse slash. Chaos had moved on in from behind, and performed "Chaos Saber" to sharpen "Death Penalty" with mana and cut JENOVA with on the central sagittal plane, before summoning up his own mana, and using it to cast a "Flare" spell on the remains, reducing them to mere ashes._

_To their horror, the remains had recovered and reformed back into a solid shape—JENOVA had returned from the dead. Once Chaos and Mayumi had gotten into a ready position, JENOVA had charged them both with the sole intent of killing them nice and slow. Before she could make good on that intent, JENOVA jumped away from a giant pillar of fire flying her way, followed by an arm as thick as an old redwood tree trunk reaching out from below the ground, and pulling her down so that she was buried up to her neck in dirt as the undead giant known as Death Gigas burst from the ground roaring. The attacker responsible for the pillar of fire revealed himself from the woods, he had the appearance of a middle-aged Scandinavian Viking and was wearing a purple wolf pelt with horns pointing forward for a helmet, as well as leather and bone gauntlets, fauld, and greaves. He was wearing a pair of combat claws for gloves. This was none other than the Galian Beast, leader of the savage tribes. It would seem that Omega has received word of this menace, and immediately sent for reinforcements to ensure the demise of the alien, as flaming mana-coated arrows were being fired into the ground with gunpowder in their cores…and just on time too, as the Cetra have also sent in their reinforcements upon receiving knowledge of this threat from the skies using their intelligence robots, as mana rounds from their newly-developed and upgraded weapons were being emptied out from the forests by Cetra snipers and riflemen._

_The difference between the demons and the Cetra is that the latter is more technologically advanced, and as far as warfare is concerned, they emphasize much more on numbers and tactical adaptation, as well as superior firepower, and their martial arts styles venerate speed, precision, and grace. However, the Demon Alliance are a much more traditional peoples, and are fewer in number than the Cetra; because of this, they are all trained from day one to be elite soldiers—even one civilian born from the true demons is equivalent in skill to ten Cetra riflemen. In addition to this, the best mages, shamans, and necromancers all belong to the Demon Alliance. Tactics-wise, the Demons are mostly oriented around heavy fortifications and are specialized in very swift hit-and-run tactics…hence why the Demon Special Forces are somewhat better than that of the Cetra when it comes to raid and sabotage missions._

_Once the dust had settled down, it was revealed that nothing was working. JENOVA had climbed out of that hole nearly unscathed. Now she was pissed! She immediately charged in the ambient mana around her, and created a nova that knocked everybody back. As soon as the explosion had cleared up, the survivors managed to get back up and see JENOVA surrounded by a glowing green aura…those that managed to take the initiative opened fire upon the alien, as more players had appeared: a four-winged warrior wearing heavy samurai armor befitting a general carrying a tetsubo, and flanked on both sides by a demon scout on his right and a masked demon wearing tattered garments and carrying a chainsaw-like sword in his right hand; no doubt it was the shogun of the Demon Alliance, Omega himself, and the fourth retainer, Hellmasker. The other warrior that appeared took the appearance of a woman in her thirties with chestnut hair and green eyes typical of a Cetra—she carried a rapier at her side and she was dressed in full light plate mail, and following her was the Cetra council; no doubt that this was Ifalna herself._

_Chaos and Mayumi looked to their respective masters, and knelt down in reverie as they approached. "Chaos," said Omega, "due to the circumstances, we both know that we have to work together with the Cetra…we have tested the capabilities of the alien you have just seen, and it was shown that even if we work together, it wouldn't matter. As of this point, JENOVA is too powerful to kill."_

"_But what can we do master?" asked Chaos, still kneeling down, "We've fought as best we can, and there's nothing that works. How can we simply surrender?"_

"_We have already come up with a temporary solution Chaos," said Ifalna, "our priests and your wizards have teamed up to create a barrier to seal that abomination within. All we need is time to have the team we have arranged to get into position, set up the barrier, and then cast it. Mayumi…I know it's hard to work with the killer of your father, but we must trust each other if we want to survive this battle. We need to let go of all our hatreds, and destroy this beast together, or else she will destroy us all."_

_Mayumi was hesitant, but she was right—her vengeance would mean nothing if she was dead. "Yes Chairwoman."_

_Omega looked to his right-hand man. "Chaos, Hellmasker and the others will be aiding in buying time for the mages. You two need to go in there and back them up. You do not need to kill her—you just have to stall her for a good fifteen minutes, and we'll be ready. Ifalna, the Cetra Council, and I will be out there, we need to amplify the power of the barrier or it will not be as efficient."_

_The two of them bowed their heads lower and said "Yes sir!" at the same time before leaving and flying towards the fight. As the two leaders looked into the distance, they watched as everything began to unfold while they walked to their destination together. "Ifalna, you do realize that once this fails, there's no turning back," said Omega, with genuine concern in his voice, "if we die, then our respective peoples will be in chaos over our deaths. I doubt you want that for your people, and I sure as hell don't want that for mine." "You think I don't know that Omega?" asked Ifalna, with some anger clear in her voice, "I know…I've always known you cared…but then again, that was why I trusted you in the first place."_

_Omega sighed as he walked next to the Cetra chairwoman, "What happened to us Ifalna? How could it be that we both ended up like this in the end?"_

_Ifalna looked at Omega with a strange look that he had long forgotten. "I guess it was because of pressures from our people that this happened. If things were different, then maybe…"_

"_I know. I just regret that our people were caught up in this…especially my son and your daughter when this all could have been solved with a simple and sincere wedding…a peace treaty hidden within holy matrimony to be sure, but the feelings in the middle were sincere. I still feel that it weren't for that one fateful event, your husband would have lived and been happy and proud of such a strong and beautiful daughter that the two of you had made together."_

"_It was war. I do not hold even an ounce of a grudge against your son, although I know for sure that my daughter still has anger towards him for killing her father. Do you also know of his secret trips to the Cetra Republic?"_

_Omega's thoughts brought him back to recollections of the past few years since the death caused by his son. "He never told me—in fact, he didn't even have to say a word now that you mention it. Once in a while, he visited my castle to find sakura branches with blooming petals. Tell me, did whomever those branches were for receive them and were they beautiful?"_

"_Yes…those were the most beautiful cherry blossoms I've ever seen every year since that day. As a matter of fact, I caught him once in the shadows on the anniversary of my husband's death at night. Every year, my husband received flowers, and words of sincere admiration to him and praise for our daughter, all from your son—I never knew that he was so sentimental."_

"_Actually, he got that from his mother…now that I think on it, he takes more after her than me—although I do see a lot of myself in him, he got the majority of his looks and sentimentality from Ayame. Oh how I miss her as well."_

_Both remained silent as they walked up to a fork in the road. "You be careful out there Ifalna," said Omega, once they stopped, "I've already lost a wife to this war. I don't want to lose you." "And I should say the same of you," said Ifalna, "I don't want our children to be without us when they are not ready. They both have so much to learn before they are ready to succeed us." With that, the two leaders split up and went to their respective sides._

_Meanwhile, a dance of death was being performed in the crater that JENOVA had created upon her arrival. Cetra riflemen and swarms of undead infantry began to storm the crater, bolts of mana being fired at the target, but the main attraction of this dance was the melee between Hellmasker, Galian Beast, Death Gigas, Chaos, and Hibikuro Mayumi against JENOVA. Hellmasker had found an opening, and performed his "Nightmare" attack to curse JENOVA to weaken the alien while Galian Beast slid in and performed his "Berserk Dance" to wear her down and keep her stalled with his graceful movements, long enough for Death Gigas to bear-hug her from behind, and perform a German suplex, turning her around, and then finishing her off with a piledriver combined with electricity to perform the "Giga Dunk" attack. JENOVA got back up from the attack, and snapped Death Gigas' neck before following through and attacking Hellmasker with a "Blizzaga" spell. What she didn't notice was that two beams of light were being charged up: Chaos had summoned the giant skull again, and started charging in mana for the "Satan Slam" attack, while Mayumi had charged energy into her chakram and focusing it into a blue sphere in the center of the weapon, preparing to fire her "All Creation" beam. Once their energy attacks had made it to critical mass, they both fired, and crushed JENOVA under a large beam of raw mana._

_Just as JENOVA was getting up again and recovering slowly, bright beams of light shot out from the forest, and began weakening her. She then came to realize that she was being sealed, and that it was too late. Her body had started cracking and turning into marble. JENOVA made one more reach out to the heavens and let out a scream before even that was silenced. That battle was won! Everyone cheered and celebrated that night._

The capital of Wutai would make one think to Han Dynasty China and Tokugawa Japan in terms of architecture. The city itself was dwarfed by a mountain top with a temple at the bottom, and carved on the face of the mountain was the form of the great three-headed and six-armed bodhisattva Da Chao. People either wore clothes that were fitting for the Tang Dynasty all the way up to the Qing Dynasty, or clothes that were not out of place up to the Tokugawa period. Everyone was walking down the streets minding their own business, not noticing that their princess was among them in disguise looking up and down a stranger now wearing a black kimono with red trim, a khaki hakama, a sedge shade, and carrying a biwa and a red cane. He still wore his prayer beads to signify his former status as a monk.

"Wow Vincent," said Yuffie, "you look…" Handsome? Sexy? So good that she'd eat him? She had to think of something fast. "You look nice." Yeah, right, as if that would really give her points for making him really notice her.

"You really think so?" asked Vincent, "I can't really tell."

"Well for all that money I spent, it'd better be worth it. You've been playing the biwa nonstop—you deserve to take a break after your excommunication. I kind of felt bad that you were walking around shirtless, so I decided to give you some clothes that wouldn't make you stand out so much." Although she really did wish she could just rip all those clothes off, thong and all, and grab him, nuzzle his chest, and lick and rub her hands over each and every scar on his body, she had to exert control over herself. Yuffie really didn't want to be seen as easy—desperate as she was to lose her virginity, she didn't want to appear that way. If she did, she may very well be scaring the man who had won her heart. Hmmm…that's interesting, 'man who had won her heart' eh? She then began to consider the possibility of the two of them marrying and having children—oh they'd be so perfect. They would have…Wait a minute, no! Stupid! Stupid! If Vincent could read minds, he'd probably be scared by now.

"Are you ready to visit your mother?" he asked, "Yeah," answered Yuffie, "let's go." With that, the two of them started walking hand in hand. To the unsuspecting passerby, they appeared to be a good sister leading her blind brother a bucket of water and flowers in her hands. It was actually a cute scene.

Vincent then suddenly stopped. "Ah yes! I just remembered—I've forgotten to get something. Yuffie, I have to go. I'll meet you there in a bit." Yuffie puffed her cheeks in annoyance, but complied. If he had to go, he had to go. She simply walked on over and found her way to the graveyard…she looked through the tombstones until she found the name she was looking for: "Kisaragi Xiaoyin: loving mother, wife, friend, and one of the finest empresses this land has ever seen." As Yuffie threw water onto the headstone to clean it up, and replaced the flowers in the vase, she remembered her mother well, and Vincent was not kidding when he said that she was pretty…she really was a very gorgeous woman both on the inside and the out. She remembered the last time she saw her mother—it was a rainy night. She really felt bad about not being able to keep her promise to her mother about taking care of her little brother, but at least they both went to a better place now…one where her little brother would not have to suffer from hunger, or war, or disease. She knew that her mother was a person who would not be out of place living in heaven.

When she got to the vase, she then noticed something different. For one, the scent of sakè was not present, and there was no sakura branches with open blossoms placed in her mother's vase. Every year since her mother's death, whenever Yuffie and Godo would come to pay their respects, someone had always come before them and placed some open sakura branches in the vase and poured sakè into the soil in front of the gravestone…the typical traveler's way of treating the dead to wine. Whomever it was must really have admired her mother. Perhaps the sakura person had pressing matters to attend to.

"Yuffie!" She heard that voice, and immediately knew who it was. Yuffie turned around, and saw her father. She would be lying if she said she didn't miss her father…all those days of travelling abroad as a thief had made her realize how important her father was to her. She said nothing, but ran to hug him midway towards her mother's grave.

Emperor Kisaragi had tears in his eyes…tears of joy. "I've missed you!" Yuffie only tightened her grip around her father even more. Their reunion was interrupted when the sound of a fluid touching the ground was heard, and both father and daughter turned around to see a man in a sedge shade bring a biwa around from behind him to play a tune…it was a nostalgic song that spoke of the ephemeral beauty of the sakura, and the truth it held to the meaning of life; that all life is but a beautiful moment on this world, and what made each life beautiful was the way that people used the time they had before they died. They then started walking towards the man, as they listened to him play.

"I guess you never really did expect to find out who was always there before the both of you went out to pay respects didn't you Yuffie?"

Godo simply looked at the man who spoke. There was something familiar about him, and his voice had brought up some nostalgia. Upon hearing that voice, Yuffie then realized who the sakura person was. The man simply got up, and turned around to face the two of them, and took off his shade.

"Godo, it's been a long time."

There was no doubt about it now…Vincent Valentine was the sakura person!

* * *

_**A/N: One-hundred points to whomever can guess the identity of Omega's son and Ifalna's daughter and the connection between the two leaders.**_

_**Translations and Vocabulary:**_

_**Nodachi—an extremely long samurai sword; not easy to use due to its length and weight, and it doesn't cut the enemy outright (it's designed to fold the victim under its rapidly moving weight).**_

_**Tetsubo—also known as a 'kanabo'; a giant club that looks like a solid iron baseball bat with a studded octagonal shaft…oni are known to use these rather heavy weapons, and there's a saying regarding it 'oni ni kanabo' which translates to giving someone a double advantage to make them invincible.**_

_**Hinotori—a surname, the kanji reads as 'fire bird' or 'bird of fire', which can also translate to 'phoenix'.**_

_**Dharma—Yuffie's great-grandfather's name; it is the Buddhist and Hindu name for the 'Law of the Universe'.**_

_**Hijima—the Hinotori tribe's home; I borrowed the Japanese kanji for 'fire' and 'island', directly translating it into "Fire Islands".**_

_**Songs Played:**_

"_**J-E-N-O-V-A" by Nobuo Uematsu: First half of battle against JENOVA**_

"_**Blow Me Away" by Breaking Benjamin: Reinforcements coming in to bring down JENOVA, everyone starts to swarm in on her.**_

"_**Sakura Sakura" by Rin': Vincent's song to Xiaoyin's grave**_


	6. Blood Oath

_**A/N: Colonies and cities are being destroyed left and right, just to find one man…whose blood contains the secret to immortality. With Sephiroth, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo on the field now, things do not seem to be going well. This is probably the longest chapter I've done yet. As usual, please read and review…**_

_**

* * *

**_

Foreigner Colony Nibelheim…

Tifa didn't understand what just happened. She was just in her bar, cleaning up for the night so that she could go out on her hot date with that man Aeris was telling her about when she noticed a bright flash from afar that knocked her out. As soon as she became conscious, she found herself buried under piles of rubble. This was no trouble—she simply picked herself up, causing all of the debris to fall like crumpled leaves, and she surveyed the damage. Many of the buildings were destroyed, and people were buried under them just as she was. Before she could make a move to help, she heard footsteps from behind her.

"I wouldn't move from that spot right now if I were you," said a voice from behind her, and once she turned around, she saw that it belonged to an effeminate man cocking a revolver in front of her, "my brothers would simply come on over and kill you by mistake, thinking you're a witness." As she continued to study this man, she noted that not one bit of him seemed natural—he looked like an angel with long white hair and emerald eyes. It was clear from his form-fitting black leather armor that he was a member of Shinra's elite SOLDIER warriors, one of the big four. He then started moving forward, revealing that he was only slightly taller than her. "Although, I do believe we have time for some…fun now don't you think?"

As soon as he got into range, Tifa simply knocked the gun out of his hand by twisting his arm, and then she stomped him on the instep, punched him hard in the solar plexus, and then finished off by kicking him in the treasures before she heard the sound of a child crying from behind her…it was Marlene Wallace—Boss Wallace's adopted daughter from the war.

"Make another move against my brother, and I will make her hurt big time." Tifa turned around, and saw another man with white hair and emerald eyes—his hair was short and stood up, and he had a little girl in a headlock. He was obviously at least a head taller than Tifa herself. "Don't be rash Loz," said another voice, it belonged to a third white-haired man, his hair was roughly shoulder-length, and he carried a sword at his waist, "she has his scent on him. And I doubt it would be a very good idea to kill her Yazoo—not unless you'd want for mother to be angry at you for failing Hojo." No sooner than Tifa had turned around, than when she saw that the man named Yazoo, who had attempted to rape her, had his revolver aimed at her face again.

"Tell me," said the man with the sheathed sword, "per chance did you run into a blind man with a biwa strapped to his back?"

Tifa glared at the speaker. "Why should I tell a man who would take children as hostages? How do I know you're not going to kill her as soon as I tell you what I know?"

"Well you don't have a choice in the matter now do you? This man, or monk if you will, has had Court Magician Hojo's eye for quite some time now—in fact, I believe there was a big thirty-year-old bounty on his head. You have his scent on you, albeit very faint. And because Hojo was unspecific as to how we find him, we'll tear down every foreigner colony we come across until someone talks. And all those innocents will have died because of you. Now are you going to tell us, or are we going to have to do this the hard way and torture you until you talk?"

"Let the girl and all survivors go first, and then we'll talk…"

* * *

The Capital City of Wutai…

Godo looked at the man who had revealed his face—he had not aged a single day since they were all twenty-seven. Perhaps Xiaoyin was right; the reason that he was made an orphan, the reason that he was made the last member of his tribe was all because of the Kisaragi family's greed. "Vincent, is that you?" he asked, looking at the man, "It is I Godo," he said, "and I'm sorry for not showing myself until now. It's a long story…"

Godo simply ran up to Vincent, and grabbed him in a hug, and then backed up. "My grandmother had a message to give you after you left, just before she died. She said that she was sorry for what happened to the Hinotori tribe. She couldn't stop Dharma from committing the genocide of the Hinotori—she tried as hard as she could to convince him that they simply cherished their independence, but that only stoked his paranoia of your tribe. She couldn't save the rest of your people, but she was able to save your mother—her only friend among the tribe. Xiaoyin found out your identity and so on her behalf and that of my family, I wish to extend my sincerest apologies for what Dharma did to the Hinotori."

Vincent simply smiled—his friend was sincere when he didn't need to be. "Godo, I've never hated your family…I've never even hated you or your grandmother. The vengeance I wished to have from the Kisaragi was avenged the second you dealt the finishing blow onto Dharma. And from there, you needn't apologize—the debt to me owed by the Kisaragi has been paid in full."

Godo grabbed his friend in another hug, and led both him and his daughter to the pagoda.

* * *

Foreigner Mining Colony Corel

The colony of Corel was a mining town of sorts. Much of its buildings were built to accommodate engineers and mechanics of all sorts much like its predecessor known as Rocket Town. From here, in addition to the ores and stones that this place is known to be rich in, the crystalline object composed of mako and other trace elements known as materia is mined in its raw and natural form. The livelihood of these people depended upon the mining of this precious crystal—it could be used to power many things, and it could also be used in the casting of spells. Engineers from the Western Continent have always found the Island Kingdoms to be chock full of the purest and most powerful materia formed from nothing but mako—this was the opposite of the Western Continent itself where the materia was mainly used as a form of jewelry, and never really taken seriously for any benefits due to how weak it actually was…but studying the materia here in Wutai, it is revealed that material, even those that come from the Western Continent grows and evolves, and other uses were found for the crystal.

In his gunsmith's shop, a large and hulking dark-skinned man with a prosthetic arm went to work on a new masterpiece…it was a large 150 kg belt-fed minigun built to fire 200-gil custom-tooled cartridges at 10,000 rounds per minute; it was gas-actuated and had a built-in mako generator that clipped into the bottom of the gun with a built-in socket for his prosthetic. Normally, Boss Barrett Wallace took his job as mayor and head miner seriously, but people found his hobby in machines and firearms to be quite a killing for him—his firearm designs ensured that his colony was well-defended, and his engineering degrees from the motherland made him trustworthy with anything mechanical…but what made him mayor was his sense of judgment—he was a born leader.

"Boss Wallace!" called out a messenger, "We've got a message from our contact in Nibelheim. She says that Shinra's become serious in going after their 30-year-old bounty, and they want him now. They sent out the big four and wiped out the center of the colony. They also threatened Marlene in front of her and so she had to spill on where she saw him go. They'll look for everywhere that he has been, and they will tear down whatever they have to in order to find him. How shall I respond?"

This was not good at all. "Send word to everyone else in AVALANCHE. Tell them that Shinra has made its move and that the big four are on the warpath. They will destroy the places the bounty has been in and interrogate anyone they believe had been harboring him. We're all going to meet in the capital to get the go-to for the attack. Godo trusted us to give him intel on site, and so we're going to have to tell him what happened. Once everything is approved, we're going to make war on those Shinra bastards! And do me a favor; get that lazy-ass Cid out here double time!"

"But sir, he…"

"I don' want any excuses. I don' fucking care if he's banging that engineer chick Shera like dogs in heat, yo. I don't fucking care if he's busy on that damn airship o' his. I want him here now! And if he gives y'all any trouble, then y'all have permission to knock him over his fucking head and then bring his ass down here yo."

"Yes sir. Ah yes, I almost forgot—the contact has reported that she's on her way to the capital as we speak. She'll meet us all there, and she's brought some refugees along with her."

"Then we'd better not keep her waiting yo…NOW GO AND GET CID'S LAZY ASS DOWN HERE!"

* * *

"_You can't be serious!" screamed Mayumi to Ifalna, the anger clear in her voice, "After what he did to dad? I've always known that you would arrange a marriage like that, but this is crazy. I've hated him ever since I've encountered him in that forest…I mean why are you even bothering with this peace treaty? Shouldn't you hate him for killing dad?"_

"_And how exactly can I hate the son of my former lover?" asked Ifalna, her voice calm, sweet, and steady like her personality, "Your father's death was fair and square by the law of war. I will be always be angry at him for killing Kenji, but I can't bring myself to hate him or his father. Did you know that we once attempted to try for peace among our people in this way?"_

_Mayumi was looking at her leader in bafflement of what she revealed. "What does this have to do with anything?"_

_Ifalna sighed. "Once upon a time, the Cetra and the Demons could have made peace, and all it would have required was but a simple wedding. And because of the hatreds our people had for each other, we could not marry. And so that was why we continued to fight the Demons pointlessly. Don't you see the stupidity of this war by now? All of this could have been stopped if the Cetra and the Demons weren't so stupid as to try and stop the wedding! Well they succeeded—and this time, I don't intend to let this treaty fail as well, and for the sake of our children of the future I will be damned if I let __**ANYTHING**__**FUCK IT UP**__…now you will get to know him, you will marry him, and you will like it. End of discussion…you are my precious daughter Mayumi, and because of our ties as family, I care about you. I wouldn't have arranged this marriage with him if I weren't sure that you would get along. From what I can tell about his character on the few times I've spotted him on the battlefield, he is more like you than you think."_

_The carriage carrying both Omega and Chaos was heading its way towards the Cetra capital of Gongaga. While looking out the carriage from his seat in the shadows, Chaos noted everything about the Cetra wilderness. He was always comfortable in the wild—this was one thing that Galian Beast noted about him…despite his outward appearance, Chaos was in love with the deadly beauty of nature as much as he was with the disciplined art of architecture and craftsmanship that the artisans and architects have shown back at home._

"_Don't think that you're going to be flying out on me now," said Omega, revealing his true form, which was that of a man in his forties with silvery hair and red eyes, "that girl is going to be your future wife, and it'll be a cold day in Hell before I let you run out on your fiancé. Her mother and I were involved romantically, and I will not have you being rude due to a little indiscretion as killing her last husband."_

"_That's not what I was thinking of," said Chaos, "I was thinking how hard it would be before we actually become one with another—in spirit. I know how much hatred she has in her heart for me. She doesn't realize how much I respect her, and she doesn't realize why I both admired and hated her father."_

"_Don't you dare bring that up my son; what's done is done—it's all water under the bridge now. Brooding in the past is not going to bring her back. All we have to look forward to now is the future—I especially want to see how my grandchildren and their children's children will turn out. Now you two are going to get along, or I will make you—and let me remind you my son, that it will not be pleasant when I make the both of you do so—not for her, and __**ESPECIALLY**__ not for you if you are the one responsible for fucking this up. Now quit your brooding, and cheer up. You're about to get married, and you're going to meet your new wife very soon."_

_The carriage had pulled up and the door was opened. Hibikuro Mayumi was standing there with her mother waiting at the mansion for the two men to leave. When both stepped out of the carriage, Chaos was revealed to have long hair like strands of black silk, and eyes as red as his father's—Omega wasn't kidding when his son mostly took after his mother in appearance…he'd put a woman to shame with his pretty-boy looks. Mayumi herself was very boyish in her appearance to match up with her tomboyish attitude—although she was far from ladylike, she was still a woman, and seeing Chaos step out of the carriage in his true form was actually a surprise for her, as when the Demons were in times of war, they are always in their transformed state until times of peace came and they could transform at will back to their human forms at will._

_Once father and son had gotten out of the carriage, they both bowed low between the mother and her daughter…_

The Palace of Wutai…

Yuffie awoke from her sleep. Another dream about Chaos and Hibikuro Mayumi…why was she getting those dreams? What did she have to do with some Cetra general and Demon prince? She then realized that these dreams didn't come into her mind until after she met Vincent—perhaps he would know about them. As she got up to go to the kitchen, she overheard a speaking to someone. It was Godo, and as she peeked from the column behind him, she could see that he was speaking to Vincent, still pretending to be blind.

"I never thought it would be this way," said Godo, "who would have thought that Hojo and Lucrecia would betray you. And it would be because of your escape that the Shinra Kingdom refuses to cause an outrage after the war. I heard rumor that Hojo was performing human experiments…that a subject had escaped, and to ensure that I wouldn't discover the possibilities that this subject had within him, the kingdom made a false sort of peace and kept hush-hush about the calamity so that they could search for him under my nose…I never knew that you were the subject that escaped them.

Godo sighed as he reminisced on the past while thinking back on the other two friends mentioned. "Kobayashi Hojo…as a child, he was one of our circle, a brainy sort of boy—in fact, he was the only one of us who was properly and adequately schooled (although he was self-taught), and up until you came, he was the second-in-command in our group of friends until you became the most influential member of the six of us. I've always known he didn't really like you—but on the other hand, I noticed one or two slips of tongue that suggested that he was also jealous because you were everything he wanted to be—strong, beautiful, charismatic, smart, and most of all wise. You were the amalgam of all our strengths—you were stronger than all of us in many ways than one…practically the most perfectly balanced being in the world in his eyes as if you were a human representative of the gods themselves.

"Lucrecia Crescent also had an eye for you as far as I remember. She was rather shy—but she was curious and also rather brilliant. In fact, just as smart as Hojo if I'm not mistaken, although her worship of you was much more subtle than her husband's although I couldn't really tell as she mostly hid from your presence unless she had something really important to ask you. Although from the few times I spoke with her, I had always found her to be a very sweet girl…and I certainly was surprised when she married Hojo."

"Lucrecia was the one who helped me to escape," began Vincent, "after I fled the Shinra Kingdom, I vowed to spend as much time as necessary to figure out what to do. So far, I've drawn a blank…not from not knowing what I should do, but to figure out my priorities. You've already answered my question as to why she would help me—and now I know that I must return the favor in one way or another…thus adding another thing to my list of things to do. I just hope that everything is well in the future—Da Chao be praised, I wouldn't want anyone else to be harmed simply because they were involved with me. Now that I know you're in on this, now comes the time that I must consider what I should be doing."

Godo simply stroked his mustache at that. "Shinra's been a thorn in the side of the kingdom for a while. And it seems to me that you are not the only one with troubles from that place. Anything you need, tell me, and I'll provide it to you—I owe it to you at least for what Dharma did, and as a friend."

"I thank you Godo, for your generosity. But this is my burden—and as such, I will bear it alone. But I do know that one of my goals is the destruction of Shinra…from what I remember, that kingdom had fallen to the devil…King Shinra had been taxing his people to starvation such that only the aristocrats remained untouched, corruption runs rampant in the streets, and of course you know of the experiments performed there…considering that I was there and taking much of the brunt of it. There will be no peace in the Island Kingdoms until at least a new government is restored there…one where the place actually prospers instead of simply the nobility."

His words sank in when he saw someone running towards them…a messenger no doubt."Sire, we have a problem. The Nibelheim foreigner colony has been annihilated!"

"What?"

"We have survivors at the gate of the city, asking for sanctuary. One of them, a Tifa Lockheart had reported seeing the attackers, one of them summoning a meteor from the sky to destroy the center of the colony. She's demanding to speak to you now and is waiting behind these doors."

Godo had a look of sheer panic on his face. "Send her in." The messenger nodded in acknowledgement, and started moving towards the door. Once he opened it, the little girl from his daughter's childhood showed up—beautiful today but still a bit haggard as if she ran all the way to the palace quickly. Tifa walked up to Godo, and knelt down in reverie. "My lord…I have terrible news. I made an encounter with…" she turned her head, and found Vincent there, sitting in the standard seiza position.

"What are you doing here?" Her question was filled with confusion.

"Emperor Kisaragi here is an old friend of mine," began Vincent, his voice polite and professional, "and I came to visit him and the grave of his wife before heading back into the road. And since this concerns me as well, AVALANCHE agent Lockheart, I'll want to hear this as well. Don't be surprised—I've heard rumors about your organization in the underworld…after all, no commoner gets an audience with the emperor himself unless they are his personal ninjas and spies under the banner of AVALANCHE—the anti-Shinra special operations unit. Now, back to the matter at hand…what is it that you have to tell us?"

Tifa looked to this stranger in her eyes…he emanated a kind of regal aura about him—one that she had seen in her childhood whilst in the presence of the emperor himself. And even though they had only met once before, she felt that she could trust him. "Shinra sent their four biggest generals out. They are all injected with something that made them stronger than the average SOLDIER, and those guys are tough enough to fight as it stands. They came to Nibelheim, and destroyed the center of the city. I managed to get out, and beat the living daylights out of one of them…Yazoo I think his name was. Next thing I know, I found myself in a hostage situation with not only a little girl, but the remaining survivors of the colony—I told them to leave us all alone if I told them where you went next."

Vincent was not angry—she was merely thinking of the greater good. His life was essentially forfeit the minute he was captured and experimented on by Hojo. "Go on. Where did they go next?"

"Last I saw, they were heading towards the burnt-down orphanage, and then to the Midgar colony. After the incident, I sent a pigeon over to the Corel colony, and in addition to a report of what had happened, I requested that all of the AVALANCHE members come here to meet in the capital city. They should all be coming here as we speak to make war on Shinra for this atrocity."

Vincent sighed. "And so more people are hurt all because of me…what would it take to join AVALANCHE, Agent Lockheart?"

"Join?"

"I intend to start paying back for everything that had happened due to my escape. I may not have lifted a finger to cause this directly, but I may as well have done the deed myself had I known what kind of trouble would happen because of it. And joining AVALANCHE seems like the best option yet for this. I can be useful to you…"

Yuffie had heard enough…she was not going to let him carry the cross for this. She didn't feel it was right to let him do this on his own—she was following him whether he liked it or not. "…as can I." With that, everyone looked in the direction of where she was hiding as she revealed herself. "I want to join in on AVALANCHE as well." It was truly a testament as to her skills as a ninja the way she was able to hide from her father and Tifa—but it was no surprise to her that she never could be able to hide from Vincent, as pretending to be blind for so long may have sharpened his senses to the point that he can even hear anything and everything around him.

Vincent's face was serious upon hearing this. "Yuffie, this is something that doesn't really concern you…this is something that involves me, and me alone. If you die because of something I had caused, then there's no telling how much the world would miss you. No, this is something that I have to fix alone."

Yuffie walked out from her space by the column, and gave him a quick slap. "YOU STUPID FUCK!" she screamed, anger clear in her voice as she grabbed him by the sides of his kimono, shaking him back and forth, "DON'T TELL ME YOU'VE FORGOTTEN! Whether or not I know everything there is about you, or whatever burdens you carry, I am very much involved with you. Ever since that incident in the temple, I've known that there was no way I can go back to the way I was after what I saw and felt…no matter how much you try to protect me, it's too late to drive me away—I am too tied up in your affairs for you to save me now." At this point, Yuffie's anger had caused tears to well up in her eyes as she hugged him tightly. "Vincent…I don't want to lose you…I'd rather follow you to the grave than to be without you…because I…I…"

Vincent sighed as couldn't say anything as she tightened her grip on him. He was stunned. All he could do now was to slowly and gently lock her in a hug while running his fingers through her short black hair. She was right—it's too late for her to turn back now…he had tried to protect her from him, and failed, and now she will forever be stuck with him in this calamity that he had caused unknowingly.

Tifa looked to her childhood friend, and knelt down in front of her and Vincent. "Yuffie," she said, hesitation in her voice, "you and Vincent have to be sure about this. Once you join in, you can't leave us. If you die, your name will never be mentioned in the history books—you will be forgotten forever if that should happen as nobody will even know you existed. This is how secretive we are, because as far as everyone outside of this room and a few know, we don't have any members, we don't have a base, and we do not exist in reality…we are somebody, and yet we are nobody…we are real and yet mythical…we are the highest-kept secret in the Wutainese kingdom: the sleeper cell of ninjas known as the AVALANCHE Black Ops Unit. Now are you sure you want to join us? For once you do join, there's no turning back."

Yuffie looked to Vincent. "I am sure," he said, "as a matter of fact, I am willing to swear by the traditional way of the native Wutainese people whom I've lived among for so long if you are willing. I shall take the blood oath under the peach trees in the gardens outside with you, Godo, and the rest of AVALANCHE's key members as witnesses and participants. You will be the judge of when."

"I'm taking that oath with you Vincent," said Yuffie, her voice and expression equally determined, "I'm following you to the grave if I have to. We're going to take down Shinra so that you don't have anything else to worry about! On this I swear!"

Vincent looked to Yuffie with a combination of concern and pride. This was a girl who would go far, and would one day make a very fine leader. "Very well then," said Tifa, "we will proceed with the ceremony tomorrow night at 10:30. Prepare yourselves." With that said, Tifa followed a servant out of the room to get to hers.

* * *

Shinra Kingdom…Court Magician Hojo's secret laboratory…

Hojo sat around watching the IV tubes drain a certain ruby liquid from the subclavian artery of his one-winged angel to the into the slit on his wife's wrist. The order of his goddess was to find her a body to infuse all her blood into and control—specifically the body of a woman. She said herself that a body of any type would have done just fine, even a dead one, as long as it was in a female configuration (she could even control the body of a male-configured organism, but she was still a woman, and would be grossed out if the body she resided in was that of a man's). It was a good thing that he kept Lucrecia's body in that new cryonics tube he had developed through the use of ice materia. Now he can experiment as much as he likes, and eventually be considered a god himself…and not to mention he'll be getting the beautiful woman that was his wife back again…although this time, she'll be having the qualities of his goddess merged into her. And the best news about this is that if he can't attain godhood, then at least his sons would at least have had one hell of a head start towards attaining that status he so desired…and they will make him proud by becoming the gods they were meant to be.

Lucrecia was reluctant to do this…saying that the goddess was naught but a demon from the sky. She had been deluded by dreams of the demise of this world at the hands of this beautiful statue, and blinded to the rewards granted for worshipping her by venerating Vincent steadfastly. Her faithfulness and loyalty was commendable at best, but it was wasted on a false god—a demigod, or at least an avatar at best. He told Lucrecia as he told himself since his encounter with the goddess, JENOVA as she called herself; Vincent was but the preview for what godhood was like. Oh she'll see the light…she'll be a true believer alright…and once she does, she'll realize that she has now become the goddess! Oh how he regretted killing her with a potassium cyanide pill spiked into her drink, but the promise from JENOVA to bring her back after doing this favor for her was just too good to resist, and it served her right for betraying him like that. Plus it'll instill some faith in the new goddess into his poor deluded wife so that the two of them can bask in the light that only gods deserve to be in…and he was so close to attaining that glory.

As he watched the machinery he had developed in this lab, his eyes looked at the two of them: how similar they looked. When comparing his wife's beautiful, naked, and dead body with the sealed and marble-like consistency of JENOVA frozen forever in a look of desperation, they looked extremely similar. Same body type, same ample cleavage, and even the same height and face now that he thinks on it. However, his wife never had the psychic capability of communicating with him…and she was quite frail at the time—it was as if fate had arranged for this transfusion to be happening. Oh how he can't wait to take his goddess in the hottest night of pleasure he can show her—but unfortunately, she knows what he's thinking, and so it's best to leave her alone and pleasure himself with his right hand lest he attain the other sort of immortality.

Going back to his hypothesis, he had realized somewhere along the way that there was more to the secret in Vincent's immortality than simply an abnormally high mako count infused naturally and permanently in his blood—on any other person and with the same amount of that blood in their veins, they would have just burned into ashes as the mako would have been in such a high concentration and amount that it would over-stimulate the cells, causing massive deterioration to the subject receiving the treatment. There was something that he had overlooked…something he was missing from the equation—he had realized this when he found that none of the subjects of Project: Turk did not gain the immortality that the Hinotori were born with although they did get the transformation ability. He then turned to subjects in Project: Divinity being injected with the substance in Vincent's blood as well, only with a much more concentrated dose and amount of mako in the mixture…he found out the hard way that they deteriorated from that much of the substance.

He then decided to send some ninja to raid the library of the Kisaragi for any documents and books pertaining to Dharma Kisaragi's genocide of the Hinotori tribe. What they found was a guilt-eaten soldier's account of the attack at the crack of dawn in Hijima. To summarize, the Kisaragi warriors attacked the Hinotori just as everyone was starting to awaken at approximately 4:00 in the morning, and once finally alerted at about 4:30, the counterattack mounted by the tribe's warriors and members of its royal family was fierce—although in the end the counter-offensive was ill-fated and ended in disaster, the Hinotori managed to demoralize the Kisaragi soldiers to the point that they began to fear the tribe's warriors significantly more than Dharma's tyranny and paranoia due to the fact that before they were wiped out, they took exactly 99.99% of the expeditionary-turned-invasion force with them to the grave.

By the end of the one week, the expeditionary force of 1,000,000 soldiers including Dharma himself had taken down an entire tribe of 50,000 Hinotori tribesmen and women at the cost of 999,900 of their number, leaving 99 traumatized and guilt-stricken soldiers and one furious Dharma Kisaragi alive, due to the fact that only the princess had escaped into his country, and she blended in like a needle in the haystack for the next thirty or so years until her apparent demise in the Valentine Ifalna Orphanage of Nibelheim. Apparently, the surviving soldiers of the genocide were so eaten up with guilt over what they did to the Hinotori that they staged an ill-fated coup against Dharma Kisaragi which resulted in their executions.

What was important to Hojo in this diary for his investigations into Vincent's bloodline however, was this entry:

_June 17, 20xx_

_I feel sick. I encountered that Hinotori commander again while making patrols in the forest last night. He was kneeling over and crying at what looked like a sphere of white materia we had come to refer to as a "Phoenix's Egg". He turned around after hearing me snap a twig under my feet. The look on his tear-soaked face had turned from one of sadness and grief to one of rage and utter fury. In my sleep, I still hear his pants of anger and see the fires of bloodlust enhancing the color of his red eyes by making them even deeper and clearer—to the point of becoming ruby-colored and bestial catlike slits. As I watched, he transformed into a half-human half-tiger monstrosity of pure anger filled with a berserker's bliss in his eyes. He charged and roared at me…grabbed me by the neck, and then slammed me into a nearby tree three times before throwing me into the ground. I was too paralyzed to move, and he was winding up to land an extremely heavy punch into my face before he was shot in the back by another patrolman. Taking the distraction, the Hinotori commander jumped over, and mauled the offending shooter with a single swipe of his clawed hand before turning his attention to me. I quickly pulled out my pistol, and shot him in the head before he managed to jump onto me and tear me into shreds. I then watched as the commander transformed back into his human form before burning away into dust, leaving only the same white materia as the one I had seen him crying over. This is a sight that will forever haunt me along with his bestial red eyes and his roar of pain and fury…as that white materia must also belong to someone close to the commander for him to cry over it._

This white materia, this 'Phoenix's Egg' that this poor broken soul had described must have been what was responsible for the abnormally high mako content only naturally occurring in the Hinotori tribe. And being a member of that dead tribe by blood, Vincent may very well have this supercharged materia, this "Phoenix's Egg" as he and his colleagues called it. Hojo seemed to like the word 'protomateria' better. Ah well, his sons would bring Valentine to him…but in the meantime, he may as well enjoy his personal centerfold that would be his wife and goddess merged together.

* * *

The beach outside Lake Seiryu…

Aeris looked to the horizon. The Capital City of Wutai was a long way from Midgar, but she had no other option. A pigeon had been sent to her and Zack from Barrett to meet Tifa in that island city in the middle of Lake Seiryu just in front of them. She and Zack had come all this way with survivors from the Midgar colony disaster after the four big generals of Shinra had attacked the place. It was then that she knew that something had to be done. Along the way, she met Reeve from the monastery and picked him up and the rest of the surviving along the way…apparently, the demon that caused the incident in the temple was the least of their worries as they had four even bigger demons to add to their woes. She simply sighed in disbelief at all this trouble.

"Aeris, are you alright dear?" asked Elmyra, "It's nothing mom," said Aeris, "just thinking about something." Little did Elmyra realize that her adopted daughter and Zack are but remnants of a forgotten and revered race of people—they are the last Cetra on the face of Gaia…she had been waiting and watching for the day that the two lovers would be reunited again after hundreds of years of separate reincarnations. And it would seem that fortune has smiled upon them. They would finally get their rest after nearly millions of years—they've waited this long, and they won't let anyone ruin it for everyone…not for her and Zack, and most definitely not the two of them.

Elmyra looked at her foster daughter, and she was satisfied…although many people were killed because of the Midgar and Nibelheim incidents, those that survived were lucky, and she was lucky that her dear Aeris survived…Zack and Cloud were such good escorts, although Cloud seems to be very angry about something. She sighed at the fortune that the clouds had a small amount of silver lining, especially for Cloud…no pun intended. "I hope it goes well with you then. If not for the current situation, I would have been glad to come here. Emperor Kisaragi and I were friends, along with Vincent from a while ago."

However, seeing the big four made her realize something was off. Something was wrong about them…they never had this evil aura about them. It was as if they were made stronger by something else instead of their own latent power. Before, they were powerful as it stood…but now they are losing their humanity for a power that is not theirs. What is happening to them? They were all sensitive towards the safety of civilians, so what are they doing endangering them? Perhaps she and the rest of AVALANCHE will find out soon enough…

Just in the middle of her thoughts, Aeris heard the sound of a very familiar set of turbines. She looked up and sure enough, she saw the airship that was the pride and joy of one Cid Highwind known as "Shera", apparently after his new girlfriend…

The Shera, after picking up the Midgar refugees…

"Airship Shera, this is the Wutai trading port," said the adjutant, "you are cleared for landing. Please make sure that your passengers have the proper paperwork with them." "Wutai, this is Shera," said a dirty blond man with a stubble, "I'm not guaranteeing that any of the passengers have any fucking paperwork 'cause they aren't just fucking passengers, they're fucking refugees from the shit that went down in the Midgar colony and that temple on the way here. Now we need to get these people some shelter, or else we're in for some deep shit."

"Roger that Shera, permission granted. All refugees are allowed to stay at the inns we have available, and medical attention will be provided to everyone who is injured."

With that, Cid started landing the airship. "What happened down there? Normally you would ask for paperwork regardless."

"We just received the refugees from the Nibelheim incident. And by the way, is a Mr. Wallace with you?"

"Right fucking next to me…and we've got Gainsborough and Fair here as well. Tell your emperor that we're on our fucking way."

* * *

The beaches of Lake Seiryu…

Sephiroth and the other generals had followed the trail here at Lake Seiryu. It would look like the prey is there—in the Capital City of Wutai. It may very well be a good idea to report this to Hojo…just in case he wants the subject at all costs. And besides, looking into the information that they were given from their sources within the city, their trump card left behind in Midgar was still sleeping away so to speak—unknowingly waiting for his orders to crop up. Rumor had it that a ceremonial oath was being sworn, and that Godo had invited certain guests over for that very party. Their sleeper agent had just agreed to become a member of AVALANCHE…and so they will let them think what they like about their new friend. A good move indeed; and Sephiroth didn't even have to telekinetically force him to do this…now they'll benefit from the head start of getting intelligence directly from the source itself, even if the poor fellow is still unaware that he is a spy.

In the meantime, it may be beneficial to send a message each to Genesis, Weiss, and Angeal, calling in the mobilization of all of Shinra's overseas forces under their command…it would appear that the reprise of the Wutai Civil War is about to be coming up on the horizon…and it would probably require brute force to get the target out of the city. Yes…it may very well be the case. But for now, they will witness this interesting bit of Wutainese culture through the eyes of the spy—this blood oath…

* * *

_Chaos sat around on the roof of the mansion overlooking the wilderness. It's been almost five days since he had arrived at Ifalna's estate in the outskirts of Gongaga, and still not much progress with Mayumi…she refused to look him in the eye, and even excused herself from the table in his presence. He couldn't blame her—after all, he killed her father, so it was only natural for her to hate him so; after all, he understood just as much as she did what it meant to lose a beloved parent. As he sat there looking into the forest pondering the future of this relationship, Chaos could not help but hear the sound of mewing from behind him. He found it to be an orange kitten with dark stripes on her back—her golden eyes looked at Chaos with curiosity as she was mesmerized by the deep crimson of his eyes. She approached cautiously, and then jumped up to sit next to this stranger looking him up and down as if to size him up._

_Chaos simply picked up the kitten, petting her on the head while laying her on his lap. She purred in satisfaction while he looked and found a collar around her neck with the tag identifying her as "Mina". Chaos simply let the kitten known as Mina made herself comfortable curling up into a furry ball, and sleeping on his lap while he simply looked at the wildlife inside the estate. This place was built to accent and compliment the natural surroundings about it—the architect who designed this mansion house was most definitely a genius…no sharp angles could be found on this place as it was entirely streamlined into an organic sort of shape. It was both practical and beautiful._

"_My dad made this using magic a while ago," said a voice from behind him, it was Mayumi, "when him and ma married before he entered the war, he promised her that he would make something as a testament of his love to her. Apparently he wanted to be an architect before he was drafted into the war by the council, and told me good things about the architecture of your homeland. I guess he was sort of in a builder's paradise when he saw the artistic designs your people had, and also a hell because he was forced to destroy them to help end the war faster…you however, cut that dream of ending the war short."_

"_He's not the only one who had a dream to end the war sooner," said Chaos, reflecting back on the past, he never missed the acid in her tongue when she spoke of him, "my mother was actually an ikebana master with her own dojo for the art. Aside from that, she was one of the finest members of the special forces who ever served my father in the war, specializing in the fine art of knife combat. She really hated that the war destroyed everything in nature and for the fact that it robbed everybody of everything, and so she tried to find a way to put a stop to it…but no matter what idea she came up with, she always hit a roadblock._

"_One day, while I was still training to be a general, she took me with her out on a mission to hit a critical Cetra supply point when she encountered a certain general of the Cetra Special Ops unit. Yes, he managed to kill my mother before she completely sabotaged the supply point, but she still managed to live long enough to cripple them for several years after that. From that day forth, I hated that general for killing my mother; but despite my hatred of him for killing her, I came to respect and admire him as a person and a commander as well. So in a sense, your father's death at my hands was his bad karma for killing my mother…which is why I found the war to be stupid in the first place… we kill each other and for what? To satisfy our own prejudice and arrogance over the claim that we are stronger than the other? All we were doing in this war in reality was plant seeds of vengeance in our hearts…your father's death and your attack on me that day had made me realize this. Why haven't you seen it?"_

_Mayumi looked to Chaos with some degree of sympathy—up to this point, she thought he was naught but a cold-hearted killer. It was then she found that her mother was right about him: they were more similar than she thought. Perhaps the war was indeed stupid—it took his mother away, which in turn caused karma to turn around and allow Chaos to kill her dad, and then blinded her with a heart filled with thoughts of revenge. Where would it end? As she took a seat next to Chaos, she noted something curled up on his lap, realizing that it was Mina. Mayumi picked up her kitten, and stroked her fur gently._

"_All this time, I've been hating you, and I never realized what true peace was like. I guess I have a lot to learn about you and your people. We do actually have a lot in common, we just don't see it…or at least many of us chose not to…"_

"_Well my lady, we do have plenty of time to do just that. In the meantime, we should just start to learn more about each other. In my eyes, I think we really need to get along—especially since we're getting married into the wedding our parents never had."_

"_To be honest with you, I really don't see the point of this wedding…but if it's going to end the war, then we may as well give it a shot. I can't stand to see any more of my people getting killed over some stupid reason we've long forgotten."_

"_As do I Mayumi. As do I…"_

_At that moment, they both became an open book to each other…and all it took was one returned look to make both of them see what the other was thinking. All they could do was blush, and then turn their attention away to look into the beauty that was the forest._

The Capital City of Wutai…

Vincent and Yuffie both sat in the garden, with Cloud Strife sitting in the same table as them. The table was under a peach blossom tree, with three ceramic shots for sakè waiting for them. All three of them waited for Tifa to come on over with the things necessary for the ritual, and the rest of AVALANCHE and Godo himself present to witness this ceremony.

Yuffie simply looked at Cloud Strife…his gravity-defying spiky short hair was golden and his eyes were of a clear blue—as if he had suffered from mako poisoning…a condition that would arise from too much exposure to raw mako with the exception of materia, resembling that of cancer only with random bursts of shooting pains once in a while. Only those with strong constitutions such as the Hinotori tribe and a lucky handful are immune to those effects, and inversely become stronger using the mako in their blood. It is not uncommon for people who have 'popped their cherry' on mako treatments to die suffering from this condition and those who are hardy enough to survive for their full treatment become physically stronger than the average person in more ways than one.

As they sat around, Yuffie clinging to Vincent tightly, they noticed that Tifa had finally arrived: she had a tray, a gourd full of sakè, three shots, a Cure materia, and a tanto for the ritual. Once she placed the tray on the table, Tifa stepped back. "Yuffie Kisaragi and Cloud Strife," said Vincent, popping the cork off the top of the gourd, "tonight is the night we make our oath to a life of secrecy. From this point on, there is no turning back—for once we become members of AVALANCHE, we will forever be forgotten to the world. But the sacrifices we will make in the future will be worth whatever deed we have to do in the shadows. And so, this oath shall be taken with our own blood." Vincent picked up the tanto, and brought the edge of the knife to his palm, slitting it, and squeezing a drop of blood into the gourd before bringing the green materia to his hand and sealing up the wound before passing the knife to Yuffie—she looked to the gourd, and seemed to contemplate something…but that immediately changed into a look of determination as she slit her own hand. Cloud however, had no doubts, no regrets, nothing, he simply cut his palm and added his own blood to the wine.

Once everyone had healed their wounds, Vincent took the gourd in his hands, closed the bottle, and shook it up. His final move was to pour a shot for himself, Yuffie, and Cloud before lifting his shot up before handing the gourd to Tifa. The bloody wine was then served to the shots of everyone else who witnessed the oath.

"On this night, in the eyes of these witnesses, we shall all sleep in the same bed, live the same lives, and so let it be that we shall all die the same day…for as of this moment, the three of us are bound as brothers and sister by oath. Only on the day we break this oath, will we have the worst karma of all returned to us. From tonight onward, we are bound by oath as brothers and sister to cleanse this land of the evils that Shinra had brought upon it. With that, I bid thee all, cheers."

Upon saying that, the three of them toasted their shots, while everyone else lifted their shots in reverie before they all drank it down in one gulp. The oath had been witnessed and sealed.

* * *

_**A/N: Barrett's minigun was inspired by the Heavy Weapons Guy from "Team Fortress 2". I swear, that fatso is even crazier about his gun than Jayne Cobb is with Vera, what with "Oh my god, who touched Sasha? Alright…WHO TOUCHED MY GUN?!" The Blood Oath however combined the Mongol way of earning sworn brothers, with the Peach Tree Oath of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" fame (yes people, this is real ancient Chinese culture and history, not just a videogame story). And the repetitions of words in Hojo's viewpoint are just there to show how far off the deep end he really is at this point.**_

_**Translations and Vocabulary:**_

_**Seiza—the standard Japanese sitting position; you sit down on your knees and shins with your legs together.**_

_**Seiryu—literally 'blue dragon', one of the four divine beasts…represents the element of wood, and cardinal east.**_

_**Ikebana—Japanese flower arrangement…you take a pot, and you arrange plant material such as cattails, small logs, twigs, and flowers in such a way as to make it appear beautiful, especially in nature…rather difficult, or so I heard.**_

_**Tanto—the samurai knife; it's shorter than a wakizashi short sword (1-1.5 ft blade), which in turn is shorter than a full-sized katana (2-4 ft blade), normally used for a regular combat knife, and seppuku.**_

_**Songs Played:**_

"_**Orochimaru Theme", Toshiro Masuda—Hojo's lab, transfusing JENOVA's blood into Lucrecia.**_

"_**Arurian Dance", Nujabes—Chaos having a conversation with Mayumi.**_

"_**Overtaken", One Piece OST—the blood oath ritual**_


	7. One Moment

_**A/N: First day's the charm…through Vincent we'll see fully what his tribe is capable of in combat, and some kung-fu action. No warfare in this chapter, but here will most definitely be some heavy smut in this chapter…and just to try something out, I've decided to strike out the vocabulary guide. As usual, do read and review, would you kindly?**_

_**

* * *

**_

_Chaos looked behind him and to his sides as he stole through the streets of Gongaga at night in a cloak that camouflaged him in such urban settings. This was something personal, and so he had to move silently. It was a good thing that the Cetra botanical gardens happened to have sakura blossoms…and it was also good that they were opened, for there was no point in bringing sakura branches if there were no open blossoms. It was a tradition among his people that warriors were given sakura blossoms to signify their lives cut short, and to reflect on the ephemeral quality that makes life, whether mortal or immortal, beautiful. Whether by the scything talons of time or by the sword of a warrior, everybody meets their ultimate end in the long run…but what made each life beautiful was the way everybody used their time to the fullest, up until the end._

_Being a demon, he knew that the only way he could die was if he were killed, due to the fact that like the Cetra, demons don't die by aging and withering away into old and wrinkled shells of their former selves like normal humans do. They must die by their own hand, or by the hand of another…there is no in-between such as time for beings like him. When sure nobody would be following him, he simply used the ninja skills he was taught, and leapt into the shadows, careful not to leave a single petal behind, or his identity would be revealed. It was a good thing his speed training was helpful, as by the time he completed his training within the maple forests of Wutai, he was able to run through the woods so quickly as to not disturb even a single leaf in his passing. That self-same training would help him now in paying tribute to the man he both admired and hated…he would never forgive Hibikuro Kenji for killing his mother, but he would always admire his skill as a leader, and his vision to end the war._

_Once he made it to the graveyard, he brought out his bouquet of sakura branches and a gourd of sakè from home, and then poured the sakè in front of the grave. Half of the gourd was empty due to the fact that he had visited his mother's grave prior to the beginning of his stay with Ifalna and Mayumi. He then arranged the sakura branches neatly and beautifully as a sign of respect._

"_Hello again general," said Chaos to the grave, as he continued to clean it up, "it's been almost a year since I last spoke with you. Every day that passed by since the day I moved in with your wife and daughter, I still think of things past and present. Don't get me wrong, I still haven't fully forgiven you for mom…in fact, that would be the only thing in this life I can't seem to bring myself to forgive you for…just as your daughter won't forgive me for taking you from her. As the days went by, I noticed that she only keeps on getting stronger and stronger even in times of peace—she must get that from you…one day, she may actually be able to kill me…something I would willingly accept."_

_Once Chaos was done, he simply stood back, and looked at the gravestone. He heaved a sigh as he continued: "I don't know why I'm talking to you about this, but even during the war, I think I'm feel a sort of tingle shooting up my spine whenever I have her in my mind. Is it fear? I do not know…if this were fear, then perhaps I should be scared, but this tingle keeps on drawing me to her. This may sound farfetched, but I think that this is the seed for something big coming along…something that may grow into an even greater thing that I've yet to see. And the scary thing is that I've found myself welcoming this tingle and wanting more of it like a highly addictive drug; it's gotten so interesting that I want to see what that seed would become."_

_As he continued to look at the grave, Vincent bowed three times before it. "I also wonder how we would have gotten along if I had not killed you."_

"_You would have fit in just right," said a voice from behind, "I think he would have liked you if he had a chance to get to know you better." "How long have you been following me?" asked Chaos, knowing who the speaker was._

"_Sorry if I was disturbing your conversation, but I've been tailing you since I spotted you in the gardens." Mayumi walked out from behind the tree as she kept her eyes on her father's post-mortem benefactor. "So you're the one who was giving sakura and wine to my dad. I actually never thought that would be the case."_

"_Is it that surprising?"_

"_No. For some reason, since the day you started staying here, I've suspected this would happen…plus I also noticed that you had a half-empty gourd of wine with you. The person who gave sakura to my dad, except for the first time I encountered him, always poured wine for him before he disappeared…this is the traveler's way of treating the dead to wine."_

"_Smart girl…smart and observant."_

"_You have to be in those days…being dumb just means you're not going to survive."_

"_I know. Perhaps now that this war is over, future generations will be able to afford such luxuries as making mistakes…make the next generation even smarter. And hopefully we won't have to expose them to war early in their lives as we have."_

"_We have a long ways to go before that."_

_Both of them looked to the grave and bowed three times before the grave of Hibikuro Kenji. Chaos had thoughts of a new sort filling his mind…one that appeared in his thoughts the second he found Mayumi gripping his left hand in hers. The strength of her hold was very hard for a girl as short as she was compared to him…but either way, that was quite a grip she had on her hand. He could do nothing but return the grip as they both walked hand-in-hand together, leaving the graveyard behind them to visit the city of Gongaga…_

Tifa stretched herself looking at her opponent. Any ordinary blind and excommunicated monk shouldn't be a problem, but this was no ordinary man. This was an experiment that had escaped Shinra, and so a test of his capabilities was in order. Reeve had told her that Vincent Valentine had transformed before; a trait that was supposed to be exclusive to the Kisaragi. She didn't want to waste her time on a blind opponent, but she had orders from Barrett to see what he could do other than just sit around via a sparring match. Once she got ready to fight, she noticed that Vincent was simply standing there—not moving a muscle, but at the same time, he was calm and relaxed…as if nothing would go wrong. An easy hit to be sure, but something was out of place about this picture; why an opponent, especially a blind one, would leave himself open to attack when he should be on the defensive was beyond her. It's a fortunate thing that he was wielding a bamboo practice sword, or else she could be killed by a single clumsy swing.

"For the record Miss Lockheart, I've served as a fairly good assassin under the emperor's command before I met you," began Vincent, hefting the shinai over his shoulder, "so don't be afraid to come at me with everything you've got. I understand you all want to see what I can do, but at the same time, I want to see what everyone here is capable of." "You get ta see dat when we see what you can do," said Barrett from the stands sitting next to Yuffie, "jus' because you took dat oath thing don't mean that you're worth a damn until I see you in action. And who better to show you off than our own CQC expert Tifa Lockheart?"

Vincent sighed. "It's your funeral then…don't say I didn't warn you…although since you won't come to me, then I'll have to take the initiative to come to you." With that, Vincent slowly opened his eyes—the clear ruby color of his irises was enough to unnerve Tifa, but she kept her ground. She now knew that her opponent was never blind in the first place, but what did it matter that he opened his eyes? She was snapped back from her thoughts when she heard him walking six steps towards her in a casual fashion with the training weapon still carried over his shoulder before charging in, causing her to tense her muscles in anticipation for an attack. The millisecond he was next to her, she heard something like a very soft and quiet 'whoosh' as he passed by her, and then walk ten paces behind her in a calm and casual manner.

Once he stopped, Vincent simply put the bamboo sword so that the tip was digging into the ground, just before shutting his eyes. "Yuffie, would you kindly get me a cup of tea? I'm very thirsty." Yuffie was puzzled at that, but Tifa on the other hand, was not only puzzled, but insulted—tea during a duel was a very rude act when in a duel. She turned around, and started charging Vincent, but just as she was about to grab him by the shoulder, she felt it: at first, it was a trauma across her solar plexus, followed by a pain on her back as if she were hit with a medium-hard thrust from a bokken that turned into comfort after she snapped her bones in her upper lumbar and mid-to-lower thorax back in place—saving her a trip to the chiropractor. However, due to the Iron Shirt conditioning she had gone through under Zangan, Tifa had trained her body to withstand mostly any kind of impact, and yet this man managed to bypass her defenses, and inflict a couple of traumas on her body.

"Don't be embarrassed," said Vincent, turning around to see Tifa eye-to-eye, "it's not every day that people survive my special assassination technique…given that I'm using a blunt weapon, and I'm not hitting you that hard."

"Maybe I should try you on for size," said Cloud stepping out of the sidelines with a pair of red oak bokken in his hands, "I'm looking for someone tougher to test my strength. I want to get back at those Shinra bastards for Nibelheim." The second he stepped into the arena, he tossed one of the swords to Vincent, who immediately caught the sword by the handle. "First one to take a hit loses. Fair?"

Vincent simply smirked at this challenge, and prepared by putting his bokken over his shoulder, keeping his eyes open and on the young swordsman getting into a ready stance. "Well then, perhaps I can really cut loose then. I'll hold back until you seem ready to take me on at a much higher difficulty. Are you ready?"

Vincent moved on forward, walking slowly, keeping Cloud from suspecting that this was the same assassination technique that defeated Tifa. He would not be fooled! Cloud charged Vincent to his surprise, and landed a downwards hit that was immediately dodged and countered with a blocked single-handed stroke. The two swordsmen clashed, swords locked in a staggering grapple until Vincent broke the lock by somersaulting backwards twice and getting into his regular position next to his shinai as Cloud turned to look back at his opponent.

"So that's how you assassinate," said Cloud, looking at and analyzing Vincent, "you mislead your victims to believing that you're just going to move on peacefully, and then you charge in and hit them without their knowing it at an ultra high speed…the signs of the damage you have done is not noticed until you've taken a few steps away from the victim. However, the only way I can stop this is if I manage to take you by surprise or if I am at least as fast as you."

"Very good Strife," said Vincent, "it seems that this training would be interesting. You must come from a Midgar-style school of swordsmanship for you to be able to see through this attack. However, this is but one of my specialties…I'll show you what happens when someone corners me like you did…" With that, Vincent slid his foot under the handle of the shinai, and kicked it into the air so that he could catch it in his left hand, before getting into a standard dual-wielding pose for swords before charging in for a fierce attack that left Cloud in the defensive as many rapid and subsequent attacks were landed, and he barely had the reflexes to block them before pushing back, and getting Vincent to dodge a horizontal swing with a low somersault and rolling away from a downward slash. The attack was countered when Vincent jumped over Cloud in a front flip, and spun around in midair to kick his opponent lightly behind the head to stun him, and then charge in to strike from behind Cloud, only to watch him recover quickly from the attack before having the shinai knocked out of his hand. Vincent's charge immediately turned into a low slide, taking advantage of the momentum to try and attack his opponent's legs. Cloud jumped over, and tried to attack Vincent while he was down, only to watch as his opponent rolled away quickly and then got back up, standing still to analyze his opponent more carefully.

"If at first your assassination technique won't work, then you'll be forced to rely upon speed and acrobatics when cornered," said Cloud, keeping his eyes trained on Vincent, "that is the way of the assassin ninja. You use your inherited speed and highly trained agility to find or create openings for that final killing blow; an extremely important rule for you. I must say, you are the toughest opponent I've fought yet, as this is the first time I've ever fought an assassin."

"Brute physical power and a quick recovery time are musts for anyone trained in the use of the Midgarian greatsword," began Vincent, analyzing Cloud's fighting style, "like any other practitioner of the Midgarian swordplay, you are normally trained to use gigantic swords such as the infamous buster sword, but all that culminates towards using smaller weapons such as knives and regular-sized swords as you would be training your muscles to be using those weapons at a much higher speed without sacrificing power. However, there is one flaw in that philosophy…" At that, Vincent vanished in a blur, and landed right in front of Cloud. To his surprise, Vincent began by swinging at his bokken at high speeds. True enough, Cloud started blocking each aggressive strike, noticing that his bokken was getting cracked…it took one last heavy swing from Vincent to shatter the wooden sword and point the tip of his training weapon to his opponent's throat.

"Do you yield?"

Cloud sighed, knowing he had been defeated by disarmament. "I give. But how'd you know about my weakness?"

Vincent raised his sword, and placed it over his shoulder. "Simple. When you are trained to use a gigantic sword, it eventually becomes natural for you to use such a large weapon as if it weighed a feather to you. However, you need to be more careful when using a significantly smaller weapon; sure your hits will be significantly faster and stronger, but that doesn't change the fact that you're being too rough on your weapon. I figured, since you've been trained in a style that specializes in the use of a massive weapon, you would most likely apply your training to a smaller weapon…a brilliant move, except from what I saw, you are still unable to gauge how much force you should actually be using so that you don't break your own weapon. In short, you broke your own sword—I just helped to speed the process up."

Barrett simply watched this man in awe. It would seem that he had found his special operations ninja leader…fairly good? Better make that professional work! He barely had time to see what happened, but he knew that this man would be useful indeed. And Cloud would do especially well as a heavy support specialist. Yuffie on the other hand, would have to prove her worth in salt. She stepped into the ring with Tifa in front of her…

* * *

Shinra Kingdom, Hojo's lab…

It's been a while now since he started transfusing the blood of his goddess into Lucrecia, and now he's seeing results. JENOVA now has complete control over his wife, and it is evidenced by the way she began strangling him with a tentacle shooting out from her forearm upon waking. "You have served me well, my dear," she said, with two voices mixing into one, "now I am awake, and this world shall end once I kill those two who have aided in my imprisonment…the two most powerful beings I have ever encountered. Once they have died, then nothing shall stop me from dominating as the ultimate goddess with you by my side!"

"My lady," said Hojo, still being throttled, "the ones who have sealed you are long dead. You have nothing to worry about."

JENOVA softened the grip on her tentacle slowly, and started caressing him on the chin. "No. Those two are now the only beings that are capable of killing me for good—they have died many times over the years, but they exist today…it's taken many generations of reincarnations, but they now exist in the same lifetime. Kill at least one of them, and the other will follow shortly after. Those two have sworn to be together for eternity? Well then let us grant them their wish my love…we'll kill them both and send them to Hell together. As a matter of fact, kill his lover, and bring your false god to me so that I can convert him into a servant that you may experiment upon to your heart's content in your search for immortality."

"Yes my goddess!" said Hojo, pulling JENOVA to his body, gripping her tightly on her bare and firm ass, while caressing the small of her back as he felt her breasts upon him…breasts that belonged to his wife, but now belong to his blue-skinned goddess. "You shall rule all, while I shall be your loyal servant for eternity!"

Just as he was about to lock with his goddess in a French kiss Hojo heard a sound coming from a machine in the wall. It was a group of beeps coming from the

"Our sons have tracked Valentine to the capital city of Wutai, and are confirming that he is there. They want to know if it matters that they be discreet or they should start the Wutai Civil War again. As of this moment, they are awaiting reinforcements from our overseas forces to come on in should I give them the order to attack. Should there be war goddess?"

The smile on JENOVA's face was the most evil-looking smile he had ever seen, even on his wife's face. A smile he was more than happy to replicate. "I don't care who they kill," she began, still smiling, "just make it clear that they can kill all but the one with the Akuma no Gan. Kill all but your false god, for I want him alive and well…so that I can torment him however I like…you may even do what you like to his precious lover, but leave Valentine to me."

Hojo looked at his goddess with a fire of desire in his eyes. He wanted to have his wife's body again, he wanted to ravage her for the years he had missed of the pleasure known as sex with her. In the back of his mind, he even knew that she had desire for his former god figure—he supposed that he wouldn't mind that his goddess got to have her way with Vincent, so long as he eventually got his turn. So what if she wanted to rape him? Who cares? Besides, this event will open Vincent's eyes to the error of his ways and convert him into a believer—and his first act as Vincent's master would be to turn him into a servant so that he can do what his goddess would do to him and more to his lover who would also be forced to see the divinity in JENOVA, although if he converts, he will be rewarded with a child that has become that which he was supposed to be…and then the small circle will become a cult as everyone will be worshipping this goddess!

* * *

_Chaos had walked down the streets of Gongaga with Mayumi unconscious over his shoulder; his plans for tonight would not be interrupted. He had done all the conniving and scheming for this event, and it would kill two birds with one stone—Mayumi needed to get out of her study, and enjoy the festival for once…she had been too busy preparing for her final exam on how to lead that she never even came out to enjoy herself and became extremely edgy. Plus, he wanted to get to know her even better, and the Solaris Festival would be a perfect scene for a date…nobody would suspect his true identity as long as he kept his battle mode off. As he put Mayumi down on a barrel, Chaos remembered that Cetra do not have hot-colored red or yellowish eyes like the Demons do as their most common eye color are ones where the dominant color is blue, and so slate-colored eyes are not uncommon among the Cetra such as Mayumi, although it is not uncommon for both Demon and Cetra to have green eyes. It was a problem immediately remedied with a blindfold over his eyes—sure he'd look a bit stupid, but at least it disguises him from others._

_Her groaning upon awakening both frightened and aroused Chaos…he simply sat around and waited for her to become aware of her surroundings. "W-where am I?" she asked, "And how did I—WAIT A MINUTE! WHAT AM I DOING HERE?! OH MY GOD MY FINAL! I'VE GOT TO GET BACK TO STUDY…I'VE GOT TO…" She was cut off from her ranting when she saw someone covering her mouth—it was then she realized that it was Chaos, shushing her with one finger._

_She was furious, but it showed in her whispering. "What the hell are you doing? Don't you know I need to study extra hard for this final? And why are you wearing a blindfold?"_

"_I know. That's exactly why I had to pinch your sleeping acupressure point and kidnap you from your studies…you needed to be kidnapped so that you can relax…believe me, you're not going to do too well on your test if you are too stressed out. That, and I also wanted to go out with you again, but in your desperation to try and get perfect scores on your final exam, you got rude, shoved my breakfast out of my hands, and then my dad's lunch, and then you blamed us both for getting in your way when all we wanted to do was eat in peace, all in the same day. Now you and I are on a date, you are going to relax, and we will enjoy ourselves…it's the least you can do after making the two of us skip two separate meals today. Now what do you want to do now that we are here?"_

_With an annoyed look on her face, Mayumi simply sighed. "I just want to go home and s…"_

_Before she could finish her sentence, Chaos grabbed her by the wrist, and started running with Mayumi in tow. "Wrong answer; and because of that, we're going to do what I want to do. And you Mayumi, should be out here enjoying this festival, and so I must ask that you smile…for you are now in the middle of the Solaris Festival!"At that, Chaos simply dragged a reluctant Mayumi with him to a stand. From there, it was attraction after attraction as Chaos tried to get Mayumi to have the fun that she needed…that would help to calm her nerves. Gradually, her stress had started lowering and lowering more and more as she spent more time with Chaos as she started willfully playing as his guide throughout the festival, culminating to their appearance at a restaurant in the middle of the city overlooking the festival from atop a cliff. With that, the two of them simply sat down, and started ordering._

_Mayumi set down the menu, "A chicken breast in cream of mushroom sauce for me and a spaghetti in meat sauce for the gentleman in front of me, thank-you."_

_The waiter took down the order on his notepad. "Very good, miss, and would the two of you like to have something to drink with that?"_

"_A glass of champagne, and a red sauvignon would be lovely." With that, the waiter scribbled the order on the pad, bowed before the couple, and walked away. Mayumi looked back at Chaos…although his eyes were obscured with the blindfold, she knew he could sense emotions, and his sense of hearing was such that he could know just what you're doing without needing to see you—a condition for living the sort of life where war was just around the corner._

_Chaos' smile could not be missed…in fact it was a sort of sincere smile, not tainted by that aura of melancholy during the war. "Are you enjoying your stay here at the festival?"_

_Mayumi could not be angry with him now. She knew he meant well. "Very much, thank-you!"_

_A light chuckle could be heard from him. Mayumi found herself wishing that this would last forever, and that his smile and laughter would be moments that she would treasure for the rest of her life—moments that she had shared with him mixing in with this much intimacy. Wait a minute—"intimacy"? Where did that come from? Since when did "intimacy" enter her everyday vocabulary? It must have been the stress of the final exam coming up that she started getting these mushy thoughts…although those thoughts didn't disgust her at all for some reason…_

"_Mayumi, are you all right? You've been quiet for some time now."_

_The lady in question had been snapped into reality, and before she could say a word, their orders had been delivered. She was so close to not giving that waiter a tip for interrupting her. Well, it would be rude to speak at the table, and so she and Chaos started eating their meal in silence—a good opportunity for her to get her thoughts together. Once the meal was finished, the waiter was tipped for his good service, and the bill was paid by Chaos._

"_Well, since you are having your final tomorrow, I suppose we can have one more stop before going home," began Chaos, lifting his hand for her to guide him, thus keeping with his disguise, "and I think I know of one such place where we can have all the private time we like. Just move up to the roof of this building discreetly, and we'll have all night."_

_Mayumi frowned playfully, and took his hand, sneaking him around the tables, eventually leading him to the stairwell, and finding that the rooftop was indeed empty. Chaos took this moment to remove his blindfold, and beckoned Mayumi to follow him to the edge of the roof, sitting themselves down on behind the façade, and looking up at the sky. Perhaps he had been to one of these events before—yes, Chaos must have snuck into one of the Cetra towns to watch the celebration, disguising himself as a blind man so that he could not be discovered, for he knew every little detail of the festival like the back of his hand as much as she did._

_They both sat there and waited, and watched—until finally, it had begun! A brilliant flash of lights had started illuminating the night sky with bursts of green, blue, yellow, red, and even purple and white, as the fireworks show had begun. It was then that Mayumi had done something she thought that she would never do: she grabbed him in a hug, and then scored a kiss in his mouth while it was open in his shock and surprise…during that interaction it was then that she realized that she really did love this man, that she really did want to spend nights like these with him for the rest of their immortal lives, and that this wedding was no longer simply to end the war and to avert the same mistake their parents had made. It was also the moment where she realized that he also shared the same feelings for her when he reciprocated the kiss by hugging her back. Neither of them wanted this feeling to ever end, even as she walked him home as part of his disguise…and yet they still never expected that they would both want the same thing when they both reached the hallway that put them across from each other…_

Capital City of Wutai…

Yuffie looked down the arena at her best friend as Tifa stood in a one-armed Zangan-style taijutsu stance with her right hand behind her—this was known as the "Maiden Form". Normally, the Zangan-style taijutsu involves a lot of heavy punches and kicks, and using force that the user has created his or herself to block any attack, but the Maiden Form is the only stance out of four in this style that focuses mostly upon grace and is thus the weakest stance in terms of hard-hitting power…normally Tifa would use the Tiger, Kirin, or the Dragon forms, for her to use the weakest stance would be an insult to one who doesn't know any better, but any seasoned veteran would immediately know not to underestimate this stance when it is mastered.

Yuffie knew this…in fact; the Maiden is the very first stance that Tifa had learned to use, and from her last experience sparring with her friend, Yuffie had learned the hard way that she had mastered it. She usually used this stance in the past to hold back on her opponents, saving the other three stances for when she needs their respective strengths: Dragon for attack, Tiger for unpredictability, and Kirin for speed. Yuffie's style is different, and so she took the orthodox fighting stance, and prepared herself—she knew how hard her friend punched, and getting killed before she got to be married to Vincent was the last thing she wanted.

The fight began when Yuffie began circling Tifa. The first priority for anyone fighting against a Maiden form user would be to look for openings…charging in without a plan would only hurt her in the long run. Once she found her opening, Yuffie moved on in, and started with a slide before somersaulting backwards, and attempting a headlock only to be dodged with a dance-like move, grabbed by the arm with Tifa knocking her arm away, and then ending when she grabbed her by the hair and pulling her down to the ground, winding up for a punch on her before Yuffie managed to roll away. The Maiden did not work by directly attacking the enemy—it worked by getting the opponent to the ground so that you could land potshots on them quickly…it was the only defensive stance in the Zangan "Four Divine Fists" style as it plays defenseless, but at the same time, there is no opening for attack…Yuffie would have to be more careful. She had to look back in her training under Huang Shifu…what did he say about there being an ultimate defense?

Before she could think further on the matter, Yuffie immediately jumped over a low sweep kick before blocking a palm strike from Tifa, knocking her back a few feet. Knowing what to do, Yuffie immediately braced herself for an impact with the floor, and immediately got to rolling along the ground while Tifa readied herself in the half-bow stance, and her hands prepped for the Dragon style by placing them in such a way that her fingers were spread out like the talons of a dragon ready to scratch the enemy into submission, and bash the enemy with the palms of her hands. The philosophy here is to be like the dragon, and assault like no tomorrow…which was exactly what Tifa was taking advantage of—her assault began with one scratch before Yuffie dodged, and saw an opening when she saw Tifa crossing her arms; a bad move, as she managed to land her first hit, which was a straight kick to the chin…however, Tifa was not affected by the impact. No, she simply toughened up her muscles into armor, and did not move a single inch, not even when the kick was landed.

Before Tifa could land the counterattack and finish the match, she noticed a messenger running towards them. He was badly damaged, and was bleeding everywhere as simply sped past the arena, and ran to Barrett before keeling over, causing the larger man to catch him quickly. "B…boss…we got trouble…" he said, barely getting the words out, "We got a report…from our mole in Deepground…s-she said t-that the big four…they're here…and t-they received orders…they're going t-to assault…the capital…and they—they're sending in e-everyone…"

Barrett knew what it meant when that messenger succumbed to his wounds and died. In fact, it was well known from those that operated in the shadows and had at least a run-in with Shinra before, that when he said "everyone", he meant everyone from the air force, navy, and the ground forces. All of them warriors sent overseas to expand Shinra's empire in the Western Continent. Each one had a dedicated air force and navy to compliment their already impressive ground forces. When the order has been sent out for "everyone" that meant that there would be an assault and that there would be nobody left alive afterwards…not good at all. Shinra has impressive technology and was said to have advanced way ahead into the future. They would be here shortly…

"Send word to the emperor," said Barrett, laying the dead messenger to the ground, "we need to get all the civilians to safety…have them all get to the sewers. This is the moment we were training for. Make them all regret ever having crossed us."

Yuffie was nervous. She knew that with the new and experimental warp technology that Hojo had developed she'd heard of the battle would come in a matter of hours. She was terrified…she had never fought in a war before, and she never prepared herself to deal with massive killings. As she trembled in fear, she felt a hand on her shoulder…it was Vincent, looking into her eyes with those crimson lights that she had come to love. It was then that she calmed down as soon as he touched her, and she reminded herself that she had sworn to follow him to the grave if that was what it took for them to be together forever.

"It's all right," he said, obviously sensing the distress in her mind as he pulled her into a hug, "this is not the first war I've been to, so I'll make sure you're safe." Yuffie didn't know what else to do but to reciprocate. During the hug however, she noticed something white flying towards her. As it got closer, it was revealed to be three hawks, each carrying a note…

* * *

Outside the capital city on the shores of Lake Seiryu…

Sephiroth was not pleased with the messages he received from Angeal, Weiss, and Genesis…if that was true, then there would be no reinforcements for a while. He had his orders from mother, as do the rest of them, but he did not want to go into an area that would become too hot without proper reinforcements. Although, an army of roughly one million members of SOLDIER should be sufficient for the time being…in fact, that was the only amount that Genesis could muster up before his warp generator exploded—no doubt the work of saboteurs. So it would appear that karma had come back to haunt them…the irony was that they placed a sleeper agent in their ranks, and it is now very much clear that they did the same, only for each division. And it would also seem that the moment to act came when the message had been sent to Hojo.

Yes, one million SOLDIERs should be enough for now. The capital city of Wutai is already an impenetrable fortress as it is, with no way in through its walls thick enough for a chariot to ride on except through the front door. There are guards that have been armed with all sorts of long-range weapons…before Shinra had invented the single-action trigger system, Wutai relied upon old-fashioned matchlocks and archers to deal with long-range combat, but their alchemists have recently learned the art of reverse-engineering thanks to their allies in the Corel colony, and so they are catching up to Shinra—not to mention that they had also recently discovered a way to shrink a steam engine into a smaller, more backpack-sized design, and integrating it into a bolt-action weapon. The result of this reverse-engineering was the steam-powered sniper rifle; a weapon far more powerful and accurate than Shinra's own carbines, although slower to reload as the wielder must make sure that there is enough water in the engine for the gun to be extra powerful, and it takes a while to load a bullet into place.

Another thing to consider before the attack would be their archers…although the arrows of the Wutainese longbows are not as strong as their sniper rifles, they are still quite powerful—strong enough to penetrate the SOLDIER heavy armor depending on how close the target is, and a highly trained archer is able to shoot very far. However, what the Wutainese 'steam rifle' has in penetration, power, and range, it lacks in the ability to reload quickly, which is why elites from the Wutainese kyudo dojos are immediately recruited to guard the city walls and to back up the 'steam riflemen' by providing covering fire while they reload…an effective tactic of teamwork.

Next thing to consider would be the fact that the royal family there has the materia to summon an avatar of the almighty god Leviathan should things go horribly wrong. It would appear that only the royal family is allowed to summon the water dragon, and so the best tactic would be to murder the emperor and his precious daughter…however, a conundrum preventing him from doing so was the fact that the four imperial guardsmen known as the Gods of the Pagoda are no slouches in combat—they've been able to defeat hundreds of SOLDIERs in all sorts of ways, and the standard SOLDIER is worth about ten Wutainese foot soldiers…thus in order to assassinate the royal family, either he himself or his brothers would have to go in there and do the job themselves; a rather dangerous task if done improperly, and with the rather powerful warriors from AVALANCHE there to guard the city and the royal family in addition to those self-same guardsmen, it would be next to impossible to assassinate either Emperor Godo, or the princess. However, if the attempt was successful, then they would be demoralized enough to surrender and the battle would be over in a moment, and a bargaining chip could always be useful.

Speaking of bargaining chips, the unknowing mole had just witnessed something very interesting in the arena…the owner of the Akuma no Gan holding the princess of  
Wutai in a protective embrace…oh yes, she would be a very good bargaining chip indeed. Commendable as their apparent love for each other was, that was the only thing that would kill them. And the sleeper agent's fondness for that flower girl would be pointless in the end. It was clear as to what must be done…and once that poor boy finds out that he's been mind-controlled since day one, he would probably commit suicide, fun as that might sound. He'll just have to time it right before playing the mind-control card that mother had so kindly taught him, but in the meantime, it's time to allow his troops to have some fun…

* * *

Refugee's camp, Capital City of Wutai…

Aeris and Zack had been watching for some time now…the refugees from the Midgar colony all managed to find their way to this place, and so it was up to them to stand guard over these civilians. Aeris served as a medic, while Zack continued to protect her, as he always had. She had such a gentle soul, that she deserved a place in the upper reaches of the Lifestream…she also did not deserve to have to be part of a sleeper cell. But what was done was done, and so there's no turning back now, not for the Planet's last living Cetra…and fate was already unveiling its grand scheme for the two that have finally reincarnated in the same life. Sure, there are no more demons, and the Cetra have almost died out, but now they are both caught up in a war that would hopefully finish that which they have started long ago.

After giving a nod to Zack, it was confirmed that Aeris had to go do whatever it was that she was to do. "I'm sorry everyone," she said, with a smile, "but I'm tired, and need a break. Do please be patient while I rest up." With that, Aeris walked out of the tent, and stole through the shadows that hid under the alley ways of the capital city. She then found a gondola and rented it so that she could paddle her way to her destination, which was along this very waterway. As she continued paddling, she found the place she was looking for.

"What's the report?" asked a voice from the shadows, and as Aeris turned around, she found the person she was to contact. The contact had an effeminate body and voice, all covered up in a cloak.

"Shinra's been sabotaged," she began, "we have even more time to prepare for the onslaught, but it seems likely that Sephiroth's going to attack shortly—tomorrow at the latest. He's brilliant, and so we won't have much a chance to evacuate everybody. As to the actual plan itself, it's already underway. Soon their wish from long ago will come true, and the crisis from the sky will be eliminated…it seems our time has come to an end…"

The cloaked woman simply stepped closer, and cupped her hand on Aeris' cheek before running it down, calming her saddened expression. "Don't worry my daughter," she said, "if it's our time, it's our time. We can't escape our destiny, but before we leave this world, we should at least get as much of our work done as possible; that is more important than the fact that we will most likely die out, as we all will meet our end eventually. This is something I've been waiting for…ever since Omega started isolating himself in permanent meditation after the suicide of Mayumi and Chaos, and your father died thirty years ago. Once this is done, the world will no longer have to worry about the likes of JENOVA…we can start all over again, and hopefully, the two of them will finally be happy together after their reincarnations come full-circle."

Worry showed its ugly head in Aeris' face, but her voice remained calm. "But mother, what if they die before they finally realize who they were in the past? I can't stand for Mayumi to be without her lover again—that would mean that they would both have to wait even longer to be together again, as they would have to go through many random reincarnations until they are reborn in the same generation. And then I'm worried about JENOVA continuing her rampage through the stars."

"That won't happen. I've already foreseen the death of JENOVA. If they die before killing her in this life, then she has to worry about the moment that they would reincarnate to kill her again. I'm sure that being a psychic herself, she has foreseen her own end as well—which is probably why she sought out to destroy every planet she could find before they could realize their destiny to kill her in the long run. We were not strong enough to kill her then, but with the memories of the past to add upon what is learned in the now, it will be a bit easier to finish the job. She will not get away with her crimes against the universe unpunished. Please Aeris, smile—it breaks my heart to see you frown like that."

Aeris simply smiled for her mother—she was really worried for her well-being, but she was also worried about everyone else. She knew that there was no way to turn back the clock now. "I'll keep you updated as I get more information…but I would get ready. Like I said, it's likely that the attack will start soon…probably even tonight."

"I'll be ready for anything. But when you have the time, please feel free to come back and visit me again, my dear daughter, I do enjoy our visits…after all, it's been too long since I last saw you."

The smile on Aeris' face was not one that would be faked easily. It was actually very sincere, as opposed to earlier. However, one could still sense a trace of melancholy underneath that exterior—who could blame her? Once this is all done and over with, the Planet would no longer need the Cetra, and with the exception of Omega, all the demons are dead as well. "I'll do my best." With that, she walked on out for the gondola as night fell upon the lake city…she did not realize the tears creeping about in her eyes…in the end, this would no longer be their world anymore…it would belong to the humans, and the humans alone…

* * *

_Chaos could not sleep…the events that had occurred tonight during the festival was still fresh in his mind, and he could not rid himself of the memory. The feel of her lips crushing against his…the way her cleavage was pressed against his chest…the way her legs were positioned such as to straddle him while also preparing her hips to grind away at him…even the sound of her accelerated heartbeat as soon as she made contact and began devouring his lips greedily…there was no way he could forget everything she felt about doing this with him. He welcomed this feeling, and he did not want it to ever end…it was as if she had just introduced him to the decadent delights of opium._

_His restlessness was not helped by the fact that his length had hardened as he continued thinking of her. It was killed the minute he heard a door opening, as he was facing the wall, and thus the door was behind him. The box-spring beds that the Cetra have invented are comfortable, but he feels much more at home in a futon on tatami mats. "Chaos? Are you awake?"it was Mayumi. Chaos just slowly got up, and faced her. She was hugging a pillow and wearing her pajamas._

"_What's wrong?"_

"_I just had a nightmare. Can I sleep with you tonight?"_

_Chaos thought how awkward it would be later, but soon gave in…she needed the comfort. He just opened his blanket up, and shifted towards the wall, making room for his fiancé. Mayumi smiled, and got into the bed with him as he rolled to face the wall. It was then that her plans to satisfy her for tonight would come into action. She knew that she loved Chaos, and that Chaos loved her…although she was frightened, as this was also her first time…_

Vincent was sitting down against the column and sleeping…it was rare for him to be able to sleep so long, but then again, he was tired from thinking long and hard on what to do about Shinra finally attacking. Although they were given time to prepare thanks to the saboteurs, Vincent knew that only a million troops have been called in, and that they were all from SOLDIER, and so he had to figure out when they would be attacking. From that point on, he started dozing off until he found himself going completely into the third stage REM sleep upon closing his eyes. Then he had this dream…one of Chaos and Mayumi…why is it that he and Chaos looked so much alike? And Mayumi looks extremely familiar…almost like…

His thoughts were broken upon hearing the sound of the shoji sliding open. Speak of the devil, it was Yuffie. She was in a gauze-lined yukata, and her hair was obviously in a mess, meaning that she was asleep before she came here. The palace of the capital was a four-story building and his room was in the ground level as is the rest of the sleeping quarters. The royal family would be sleeping in the second tier as the upper levels are mostly reserved for work or storage. She must have walked quite a ways to get here without anyone noticing her, but then again this was her house, and so it would be that she knew where the guest quarters were.

"Can I help you?"

Yuffie had a look on her face that he could not identify. "I just had a nightmare. Can I sleep with you for tonight?"

Was it déjà vu? What was going on? Why was he getting these memories in his mind? Well, what harm could it do? Vincent simply got up and walked her with him to the futon that was laid out for him…he never used it because he was more accustomed to sleeping with his back against a large object or on the dirt. He simply put her into the futon, and got in with her with his back facing the doorway…he could feel how nervous she actually was, until she started calming down.

"What was your dream about?"

"I had a dream that we both got into a fight and killed each other. It was scary to see myself getting killed, and to see that you got killed by my hand."

"_There's no reason to get worried over such a dream…" said Chaos, as he turned to face the woman in question…_

"…Although I would not hesitate to kill myself before I did such an act," continued Vincent, "I swear that I will follow you to the grave and serve as your slave until I am worthy of your love again for this act…"

_Mayumi cried. She simply rolled around in her bed, and grabbed Chaos in a hug that enhanced the feeling he had when she kissed him, and the wetness he felt on his back seemed to break him…_

Yuffie's tears continued to stain Vincent's kimono as she held on for dear life. "Vincent, I don't want you to leave me," she said, sobbing, "I don't care if you'll kill me. I'll love you even if you do." His heart was breaking…true, she had already penetrated his defenses, but she was doing something more than that—she was dragging him into her heart with love; pure and unconditional love.

"I know we're going to have a war upon us very soon, but Vincent, I don't want to die just yet. I don't want to die a virgin…I want to give you my love before that even happens. So please Vincent, take my mind, body, and soul because I belong to you, and nobody else…"

_Chaos did not know what to say. Mayumi had seen something would happen. Before he could think any further on the situation, he watched as she rolled him over, and sat upon him with her legs at the sides of his body…_

While Yuffie reached with her hands to the sides of his kimono, and grabbed at his chest, starting to run her hands over his hardened muscles. They were not bulky as one would see upon a wrestler, or on the likes of Barrett, but they were well-formed, and the scars she had felt seemed to be a little more sensitive on him than on his slender catlike build…

_Mayumi wasted no time. She looked upon his angelic form, and wondered where she should begin her sensual assault. She planned to lose her virginity to him ever since she confirmed it at the festival. There would be no turning back if she decides to carry on after this point. She allowed instinct to take over from that point on, and kissed him on the lips…_

After moaning while kissing her lover in the lips, Yuffie moved on down to start devouring his throat as she ran her tongue down his lips, and then stopped at the external jugular vein, giving him a hickey while moving her hand under his hakama, and grabbing him by his manhood and stroking it. Vincent responded to the action by gripping her head in an embrace, and pulling it even closer, and thus increasing the force and speed at which she continued to kiss…

_Mayumi's next move after the cessation of her stroking was to move her hand out of his pants and she began to slowly strip off her pajamas—she was not wearing a bra from the beginning, and her underpants were also missing. Her breasts were small, but they were still very beautiful in his eyes. And a dark look was overtaking the better half of Mayumi…_

Instead of love being in her eyes, Yuffie's eyes were covered in hunger, lust, and desire. Everything that one that has every intent of making love would need in their eyes…that and clean confidence…a feat that is nigh-impossible to a virgin such as Yuffie, and Vincent for that matter. How he could still be a virgin at his age, she didn't know, but she what she did know was that she would show him the hunger that she had only for him. And she would begin by moving herself lower on his body while slowly running her tongue over each scar and muscle on his body while removing his hakama and fundoshi…

_Mayumi's tongue continued to move on along each scar and muscle on her lover's body even after she removed his fundoshi. It was a rather slow, but sensual motion as she brought her tongue to go around Chaos' raging and hardened manhood before bringing her head down quickly to take it in her mouth greedily as soon as she reached the tip…_

Vincent could do nothing but place his hands behind her head to encourage her to keep on going. He succeeded, as he neared release while Yuffie simply accelerated the speed at which she continued her fellatio with the sound of panting coming from her, sometimes resulting in a deep throat. It was too much—Vincent simply grunted as he shot his very first load into Yuffie, before she gulped down her first taste of seed and pulled her head off his manhood, and squeezed her breasts around his cock and started grinding at it slowly…

_Chaos had already given her a taste of his seed just a moment ago, but the way that she rubbed on his man's rod with her breasts and gradually increasing in speed as he neared another release was way too good a feeling to ever pass up. It was as if the good girl that was Hibikuro Maymi never existed at all, and in her place stood this sensual angel who desired him mind, body, and soul. He could not help it…he simply dirtied her face with his cream, and she slowly but surely started wiping herself off and licking the cum off her face before swallowing every drop and moving back to kiss him in the mouth before moving to the other side of the neck while rubbing her ass on his cock to ensure that it stayed hard, for her next act would seal the deed between them forever…_

Vincent could not keep his mind after this. She was teasing him with her ass, and it was driving him mad with the same lust and desire in her eyes. When he got up, she simply went limp as she allowed him to do what he wanted as he pinned her to the floor. Yuffie watched as he positioned himself to violate her in the best way possible. Vincent knew that the two of them were new to this experience, and so he entered her slowly, causing her to wince in surprise and gasp in anticipation—his battering ram was getting ready to break through the wall that was her hymen as he gently moved in and out of her pussy, stopping only to touch…

_The sound of Mayumi yelping in pain and surprise as she took in Chaos' length was a turn-on that also brought his attention to her as she let herself loose like a dead fish. Did he hurt her to the point of killing her? Were virgin women supposed to bleed when they had been with a man like this for the first time? "Fuck me," she said weakly, "fuck me so that we can be together forever. I want to make this official before the wedding—that I belong to you, and you belong to me. I don't care about any superstition, I just want to be with you!"_

Those words that Yuffie uttered, directed at him were all the invitation he needed. Vincent began his ministrations slowly but gently. Each time he dug himself into her, her pants kept on increasing in frequency as he accelerated in his movements. It was in the middle of the twentieth pounding that Yuffie sat up on his manhood while he was in his ministrations, grabbed him in a passionate hug, and then gave out an animalistic moan while kissing him as he sped up his motions, hitting her harder and harder…

_Eventually, the speed and strength of his pounding was too much for Mayumi to take. It was enough to throw her head off his face as she looked into the ceiling. She was near her orgasm…_

Yuffie could not hold her voice back any longer…

"_Chaos!"_

"Vincent!"

_Chaos had fired three spurts of seed into his lover as her breasts rubbed against his chest each time he shot his load into her…_

As he pulled out, Vincent could not help but feel contented. Yuffie was tired, but she had enough energy to get a glimpse of her lover as she started dozing off to sleep. Her last words simply warmed his heart more as he placed her gently upon the futon…

"_Chaos, I love you…"_

"Vincent, I love you…"

_Chaos could not help but be warmed by her heart. She had accepted a man who had killed her father into her heart. It would appear that love would keep them together. Chaos looked to the night sky outside his window. "Oh great spirits of the Lifestream, grant me this wish," he prayed silently to himself, "that I may not be separated from Mayumi, and that she remains happy forever. Grant me this wish, and I shall repay the debt a thousand fold."_

Vincent simply looked at Yuffie as she slept. Never has he loved her more than when she admitted directly that she loved him. He would never forget this moment, and for the first time in the thirty years since he escaped Shinra, he was at peace…until they had heard the sound of an explosion ringing out…

* * *

_**A/N: In my eyes, if Vincent were to be like a samurai assassin, then his fighting style is most likely be similar to the style that Dead Bones Brook uses, only he would emphasize more on slashing. Tifa and Yuffie's battle however, required that I drew upon kung-fu movies and my time practicing martial arts. Huang Shifu is inspired by Jet Li's portrayal of the historical doctor and martial artist Huang Fei Hong.**_

_**Songs Played:**_

"_**March of the Pigs" by Nine Inch Nails—Cloud Vs Vincent**_

"_**Let Me Be With You (New Step Remix)" by Round Table—Chaos and Mayumi going through the Solaris Festival and enjoying it…the song ends when they break the kiss.**_

"_**The Real Folk Blues" by Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts—oh come on! How can you listen to this song and not pair it with a sex scene? In my opinion, this song originally played for the ending of "Cowboy Bebop" is in fact one of the sexiest anime songs there is.**_


	8. Taken

_**A/N: Sorry for the loooong update, but I just wanted to choreograph the fight scenes proper, and homework was a nighmare; but without further ado, the war has begun! Blood and gore shall be spilt in this chapter, for tonight, they dine in hell and mayhem. And now we get to see who the sleeper agent in AVALANCHE is…Read and review, would you kindly?**_

_**

* * *

**_

The shores of Lake Seiryu…

As the sound of rafts being constructed filled the air, Sephiroth continued to maintain his concentration to the task at hand. Casting the Comet spell using the appropriate materia was a very taxing ordeal, and so it was fitting that that extreme focus be necessary. This summon was not as powerful as Meteor, but when precision is required over blunt force, it has its uses both entertaining and practical: where the Meteor summon is used to destroy capital buildings, Comet sends shards of ice down upon the helpless targets, and is mostly summoned to break down walls.

It was rather difficult to try and destroy the walls surrounding the capital city due to the thickness of the walls, but at least he had created an opening. And with the guard stationed at the walls crippled, the majority of his SOLDIER units can come on in with very little hindrance…and a good thing his current men are now outfitted the newly-developed riot shields. Those shields are not able to withstand too many hits from the high-velocity rounds of the steam rifles, but they are able to take hits from the Wutainese archers with no problem at all. And when locking the shields together, they form the ultimate wall against ranged attacks. By the time he was done with his spell, the last raft carrying the members of SOLDIER under his command had set sail for their destination as he managed to board the raft just as it got into the water.

Although the warp generators were broken, Deepground under Weiss's command was a mostly armored division, and so it would be fitting that they would provide the amphibious vehicles needed in the coming days. Angeal however, headed the Turks and so his division's specialty would be in ground forces, but he also seemed to favor air superiority over fighting on land—he can be counted on to transport everyone the old fashioned way, thus making Genesis owe his rivals a big favor for transporting his SOLDIER infantry. It's just as well though…warp travel, fast as it is, is also rather dangerous, as sometimes things are destroyed, dismembered, or killed somewhere in transit or upon arrival. Loz, Kadaj, and Yazoo will do just fine without him…and besides, Yazoo wants vengeance on that AVALANCHE woman that kicked his ass, although Loz seems to want to ravage her after beating her into submission himself. When his other three brothers disagree upon something, there is no stopping them unless he intervenes.

And besides, he has a job to do…a very special job from mother. One that will be done and over with shortly from what he has witnessed from the eyes of his sleeper agent…

* * *

"_We will strike on the eve of the wedding," said a demon commander, looking to the three cloaked figures, "if all goes according to plan, then those Cetra bastards will not be expecting our attack. Unlike the rest of you, I care nothing for the throne…nor do I care about money. I just hate those bastards for everything they took from us! Now get going! We have a lot to prepare for…and the wedding is in one week." With that, two of the cloaked figures vanished._

"_Is there anything wrong Chieftain?"_

"_General Ayame," said the cloaked figure, revealing himself to be none but the Galian Beast, "are you sure this is a wise course of action? I know the Cetra are not exactly innocent, but aren't you worried about the consequences? Aren't you worried about the fact that there will be even more lives lost from continuing this pointless war with this course of action?"_

"_Chief Nanaki, aren't you angry about the death of your predecessor Seto and his predecessor Bugenhagen? I still remember that day—his headdress was mounted on the wall upon his skull, and in the trophy room of some scumbag, low-life Cetra captain. Don't you hate the way he treated your father and his father? I'm doing this to avenge everything that those bastards took from us, that's all!"_

"_Is it? Are you sure you don't have any ulterior motives for this treachery yourself?" Upon hearing the words of her colleague and former master, Ayame had feigned a look of shock and embarrassment upon her face, as though she were insulted by the accusation. "Don't you dare play the 'I don't know what you're talking about' crap with me. I've seen the way you look at him…I've seen the lust, and the hunger in your eyes for him…the desire for you, and you alone to have his heart and to be the target of his affections…how you wished that he were the one that you lost your virginity to instead of that young general he's about to marry…how you wished he would see you as more than just a little sister-type of figure in his life…and how you wished that you were the one to bring him with you into the world of love for the first time. Don't think I haven't noticed these things Ayame, because he wasn't the only one who practically raised you on the battlefield. You think you have a right to be angrier than anyone else in the world because you've been robbed of your one true love? Well tough luck! That's love! Some people are meant for each other, some are simply meant for someone else, and some people were never meant to love in the beginning…and if you're blind to see who is able to love you in return, and you still insist upon performing this act of treason, then you are the worst fool in the world."_

_Ayame looked at Nanaki with a questioning look on her face. Shit! She was found out! So now what is she going to do? "I'm only helping you now because I want you to see for yourself the consequences of your selfishness…I want you to see how pointless this entire feud is between us and the Cetra, and why it was necessary in the first place for this wedding to happen."_

_With that, Nanaki, the current chieftain holding the title of Galian Beast, started walking away, and paused for a moment. "I will ask you one more time before we do this; think about what will happen, and I mean REALLY think about it. Is your desire for him greater than your wish to protect the lives of your people?" With that, Nanaki transformed into his beast-form, known as a fire-cat, and sped off, leaving Ayame to ponder his words…no, she was justified in her treachery—after all, she saw him first._

_

* * *

_

The City Walls

Vincent couldn't believe it…so many deaths, and those were the majority of the wall guards. As he watched from his spot on the wall, the warriors of SOLDIER under Sephiroth's command are pouring in through the wound caused by the Comet summon. Shortly after hearing the explosion that came from the steam rifle manufacturing plant, Vincent and Yuffie got themselves properly ready immediately. They had done the deed at the worst time possible, for Yuffie was still limping from the moment she had lost her virginity to him. Wait a minute, there may in fact be a chance to turn the tides of this battle yet…yes, all he needs to do now is to wait…many of the guards may be beyond saving, but those who are not under rubble may still have a chance.

There was no time to think about it…he unsheathed Quicksilver and drove the tip of the blade to the ground before he cut his right middle and index fingers with the edge enough to cause bleeding, and then started inscribing a seal on the ground.

Yuffie, who had stood next to him and witnessed this happening, was very unnerved by this action. "What are you doing?"

Vincent's attention was towards the task he was having at the moment. As he spoke, he started forming hand seals. "Turning the tables; if I can finish this spell at the right moment, then we will have won our first battle. In the meantime, get the rest of AVALANCHE and the imperial guard ready—have them push the enemy into the center of the city and to run for it on my mark. Highwind's communicator should help you out, and while you're here, make sure nobody disturbs me. This is a rather critical moment as of now…I can't guarantee that this will stop the war here and now, but at least it will buy us time. I need you to be ready when the spell is finished…"

With that, Yuffie simply watched as Vincent stopped forming hand seals, and started focusing on a hand gesture in which his hands were clasped together, and the middle and index fingers were the only digits pointing to the sky. This must be the monk-style magic she's heard about…as he was starting to chant away. Nonetheless, she had a job to do…that earpiece thing-a-ma-jig that Cid had built was a rather useful device, and she'll make good use of it now in giving orders to everyone else…

* * *

The Shopping District…

Tifa and the members of AVALANCHE under her command had been fighting off the members of SOLDIER in her district. What Yuffie had told them to do was ridiculous…why would she want the SOLDIERs driven to the center of the city? It made no sense…if they managed to gather them all at the center of town, and the guards were still alive, then it would have made perfect sense…but from what she understood, Vincent was casting, and for some reason, he needed all the members of SOLDIER gathered up into the center of the city. Either way, it would be a very difficult thing to do, especially given that she and the remainder of her troopers were outnumbered, and since the majority of the civilian population stayed indoors to avoid the battle this was an advantage to her…for they were caught in an alleyway.

Tifa began by landing a straight kick to the first SOLDIER's jaw and thus dislocating it in one shot before she slammed his head into the ground. The next SOLDIER tried to swing his buster sword to catch her before she could attack him, but it was caught in the wall as she closed on in and landed a left palm strike into his chest that created a shockwave in his back, and struck the SOLDIER behind him in the chest as well before she ripped off his leg, beat him over the head with it, and then hardened her fingers for the Snake Fist as she uppercut the third SOLDIER right in the abdominis rectus just below the ribcage and started bringing her hand upwards to grab him by the heart, and then rip it out in one pull. Another SOLDIER tried to move on in with a thrust, but Tifa immediately dodged the heavy blade, and smashed her fist through its face with a left hook, before following through with a right haymaker and then landing a left roundhouse kick onto the head of the SOLDIER behind him before finishing off her last opponent by slicing him in half with an axe kick before getting back into the basic stance.

"Move aside!" shouted a familiar voice from behind the men, revealing to be from Loz, the man who held Marlene hostage, "This one's mine!" With that said, he got into a ready position, as did Tifa…

* * *

The Slum District…

Cloud ran down the streets of the slum district with the Wutainese soldiers under his command as many civilians ran his direction. All members of SOLDIER were picked off easily from massed and precise spear fighting techniques. The regular imperial guardsman of Wutai has to at least have a high proficiency in the use of a spear before being inducted into direct service to the emperor in the capital city. He only helped out by parrying buster sword blows and giving the soldiers a chance to spear the targets as he blocked the SOLDIER units with his own massive blade.

He knew that the gigantic swords that the SOLDIER is renowned for would not be very good unless a downwards stroke is used in this case. If the residential district was already a closed quarter, then the slums were even more so. The members of SOLDIER who were left simply ran away in fear…that was way too easy.

"They left because of me."

Cloud turned, and saw his opponent, a man with shoulder-length hair carrying a sword was looking him down with a grin plastered on his face…this was none other than General Kadaj, the master swordsman of Shinra second only to his brother Sephiroth. "I was hoping I'd get a chance to fight the target, but unfortunately, the Hinotori man seems to be busy…oh well, maybe you'll put up a better fight then? I must warn you though, unlike my brother, I care nothing for my own troopers—they could die and I won't care…in fact, I'll kill them all just for getting in my way." With that said, Kadaj drew his two-pronged katana, and stood in the ready position while Cloud simply readied his buster sword…

* * *

The Farmer's Market…

Barrett looked onwards at the SOLDIERs approaching…he attached his minigun to his arm, snapped the gas tank to the bottom of the gun, fed the belt through the teeth of the loading mechanism, and then pulled the bolt back before moving his hand to the forward grip and raising the gun up to aim at the incoming enemies as he set his synaptic commands to simply rotate the six barrels of the gun while aiming it forward. This was the perfect opportunity to test out his newest feat of gunsmith-engineering genius. Tonight was the night that Shinra would begin to fear his name, and the power of his gun! They will rue the day they laid a finger on Marlene!

Once the enemies had come within five meters, Barrett opened fire, saturating the area with nothing but a hail of heavy-caliber bullets that mowed down the opposition. Most of the SOLDIERs that were hit by the bullets had something taken off by the shots that this terror had inflicted. After roughly five seconds and 150 bullets later, the members of SOLDIER that were in his path had had their numbers cut down in half as they started retreating, but even then their numbers were still being cut down as they ran. Their riot shields were not even covering for the retreat as the bullets were of too heavy a caliber for them to stop. If shots from steam rifles were already able to defeat the riot shields, then this gun would most definitely be the bane of riot shields everywhere.

As Barrett kept on the attack, the enemy troopers would not get close…he would not allow it. Cid had a job to do, and that was to radio in for reinforcements. Whatever was up in the princess' head had better be good, but judging from the fact that Valentine was summoning, they can be sure it is for a good cause when a blinding white light had engulfed the entire city…

* * *

The Red Light District…

Master Tuesti had just been promoted to being master of the temple after the death of Master Tsuan, but it was not for nothing. Although his skills in martial arts were severely lacking, Reeve had other talents to put to the table. One of his skills involved buildings—he was a master architect and engineer…a skill he never had much of a chance to really take advantage of. His other talent was a very secret one…one that Master Tsuan and select few members know when they see him in battle.

Upon hearing the sound of clattering wood, he knew that everything was in place. As he watched from his hiding place in the brothel, disguised as an inebriated patron, he saw that a wooden cat wearing a crown and a scarf and carrying a megaphone was running around, being chased by disgruntled members of SOLDIER. Unbeknownst to everyone else, this little wooden toy cat had caused enough trouble to really anger those SOLDIERs chasing him…apparently, he interrupted everyone in their jobs at the time, and would not stop annoying them by shouting at them through the megaphone, and insulting them all.

The wooden cat simply leapt up and landed on the shoulders of a large, hulking, pink-furred and chubby creature known as a mog. As they saw the mog, all members of SOLDIER chasing the cat down then noted that they were also outnumbered…as behind the mog, they saw that there were lots of people staring them down with anger in their eyes. Some carried pitchforks, others carried torches, and some actually carried real weapons such as swords and spears. This did not look good at all. They then watched as the cat opened its mechanical mouth, and a voice sounded out…

"All right refugees, it's time to show the Imperial Guardsmen what some disgruntled peasants from your local militias can do! Drive them back! Drive them into the center of the city! And victory for this night shall be ours!" With that, the local militias of Nibelheim and Midgar gave a whoop in assent, and started charging in behind the mog as it started landing punches left and right, causing the overrun SOLDIERs to start retreating when the light flashed…

* * *

The Shopping District…

Tifa had charged Loz and started the battle with a straight left punch to his face only to watch him dodge and perform a cross-counter. Tifa caught the punch with difficulty, and pulled Loz by the wrist to throw him into a tree, and then her next move front-flip towards her opponent, and ending by landing an axe-kick to his face. Loz caught onto her move, and rolled away as Tifa's kick managed to smash the tree into toothpick-sized splinters. Loz charged in, grabbed Tifa by the neck, and dragged her body along the floor before winding up and twirling her around—he then followed through by throwing her into a wall separating the shopping district from the red light district. Tifa managed to get her wind back, and contorted her body such that she stopped at the wall as if she had just landed, and kicked off using the force of the throw to amplify the speed at which she jumped off the wall, tackled Loz, and throwing him into a nearby building.

Tifa stopped for a moment to catch her breath, but that moment was all Loz needed to spring back into action—he didn't even have a scratch on his body. He managed to uppercut his opponent before grabbing her by the leg, and swinging her around by her ankle and throwing her like a rag doll into the building behind her with enough force to cause her to rebound off the wall for Loz to perform a lariat with his right arm. Upon landing on the ground, Tifa stopped herself briefly, and managed to perform a sweep kick to trip up Loz, and attempt to punch him in the throat—he managed to turn himself in midair, grab her fist, and then caused her to spin with him. Loz managed to recover, and attempted a curb stomp the second Tifa landed on the ground before she rolled forward, and found a trash can—she grabbed the container, and threw it at her opponent, causing Loz to punch through it; it was ample enough time for her to run on in and land ten jabs to his stomach.

Loz began to double over…had she won? Tifa's answer had come in the form of Loz picking his head back up and smiling at her as if it never hurt at all. Was he wearing some sort of body armor? She wasted no time in landing a right hook into his face, and then following through with a left uppercut, and then twisting her body around to deliver two fists into his stomach and neck simultaneously in a dragon-punch stance. However, she was far from done: Tifa then resumed her regular fighting stance, and ran to Loz, jumping in the air, and landing two kicks into his sternum, knocking him into the restaurant section of the shopping district before chasing his flying body down. Loz recovered quickly from the last two hits, contorted his body to allow him to land, and performed a lariat at the last moment to Tifa before stomping on her abdominis rectis muscles and laughing. "You think you're the only one to know Zangan-style martial arts?" he asked mockingly, as he started punching Tifa in the face, "I know all your moves! I even know how to recover from them because I learned from Zangan himself and killed him!"

After the last punch, Tifa opened her eyes in shock. This man had killed his own teacher! Her teacher! Even while Loz picked her up by her throat and threw her into a building to the left, her anger had known no bounds at this point as she stiffened her muscles to brace for the impact while smashing through the wall. As Tifa opened her eyes from the impact, she looked up and looked into a mirror on the wall—that bastard had bruised her eye, and left several scratches on her face, this was definitely not the way to be treating a lady…and as she continued looking, she saw fluid-filled glass bottles lined in shelves; 1950 Roger Franklin whiskey from Kalm, 1871 Chateau Bourgeoisie extra old cognac and 1999 Chateau Montague cabernet sauvignon from Corel, 1897 Casa de Mendez sherry from Costa del Sol, 1912 Sergei Vladimir vodka from Mideel, and there was even lager from Nibelheim and Wutainese sakè…she had crashed into a bar. Tifa turned her head around to see Loz striding towards her slowly with that evil smile upon his face…she'll make him pay.

Tifa started getting up slowly, and immediately reached for the 1950 Roger Franklin whiskey before popping off the top and downing the drink quickly as she heard Loz's laughter. "I'm shocked!" he said, "You and I both know that master Zangan hated alcoholics, and requested that none of his students take in any alcohol before he taught them! And I heard that you were practically a daughter to him! Well since you're technically his daughter, I'll represent your master, and punish you in his stead!" Tifa managed to swerve away from left hook aimed at her face while still drinking away at the whiskey before jumping over a sweeping kick and countering with a kick to her opponent's face to knock him away while she reclined on her elbow and her side as she had emptied out about half the bottle of whiskey.

Throwing the glass bottle over her shoulder as she got back up, Tifa started swerving her body to the sides in her inebriation as she started swaggering her way towards Loz, who simply started to laugh. "You think getting yourself stone bloody drunk is going to stop me?" His answer came in the form of a fist crashing into his mouth to shut him up—this was the first time during this battle that Loz had started bleeding. In his anger, he responded by throwing a left straight at his opponent only to see his attack deflected in a gentle circle before being countered with a right straight aimed at the bottom of his mandible from Tifa's super-powered fist, sending him flying backwards.

His rage did not go unnoticed, nor did he even bother to conceal it. Loz immediately charged Tifa, and began his assault, but no matter what he did, she always swerved her body away at the right time as if on reflex—no, scratch that; as if the inebriation was enhancing her ability to dodge attacks. And to top it all off, she was not even tired—it was like everything was at a more even pace for her as she dodged each punch and kick. As soon as he threw his heaviest straight punch at her face, Tifa bent her body backwards before straightening it back up and countering with an uppercut, then catching Loz's head with her left hand, she began to smash his face in with her left knee before throwing his body into a lamppost.

Loz's last view was that of the drunk woman grabbing him by the throat with her left hand. She then hiccupped, as she tightened her grip. "Master Zangan never took drunkards, hic because he was afraid of evil people using this hic forbidden stance, and because there were few who could handle it, hic" Tifa drawled in a dark voice with tears in her eyes; apparently, she was very much aware of her surroundings even while drunk, "it's forbidden hic due to the fact that alcohol removes all inhibitions from the mind, and eventually puts the one who drinks hic too much into a stupor. This forbidden hic stance is known as the 'Drunken Immortal', and it is the deadliest stance hic out of all the stances—so deadly that he never taught it to any student except for hic one…one student that he hic could trust with its power…"

Loz was losing oxygen, and the grip that this woman had on his throat was preventing him from speaking and even stopping him from trying to kick his way out of this sticky situation he was in. "I always did hic love him like a second father, and so what hic I'm about to do to you, I only pray that master will forgive me…if he won't, hic THEN I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL!" With that, Tifa finished off her opponent by increasing the strength of her grip, and nearly decapitating Loz with all her strength. She then fell to her knees and let out a tortured moan into the sky before keeling over as she passed out from her drunken stupor with her hand bloody from ripping out the traitor's sternocleidomastoid muscles, jugular veins, and his larynx…the last thing that she saw before the whole world turned black was a bright white light that eventually turned into some sort of giant bird…

* * *

The Slum District…

Cloud had managed to clash with Kadaj for a good few seconds—although he was a bit faster and was very talented, Cloud had the upper hand in his ability to take punishment, his high damage output, and experience. Kadaj began the fight by vanishing into thin air…using his sharpened senses, Cloud immediately picked up on the cue, and quickly moved his buster sword to block a swing behind him before catching Kadaj with the tip of his sword, and then swinging in such a way as to attempt to smash his opponent in the ground using the face of his blade. Kadaj simply jumped away before he hit the ground only to watch as Cloud swung his buster sword quickly—he barely had time to duck under the sideways swing before rolling away from a downwards cut.

Kadaj got back up and started charging down Cloud, ducking under a horizontal slash, sliding in between his legs, and then running towards him, prepared to stab his opponent from behind only to watch as Cloud followed through with his first slash by turning around in the same motion, and then just as Kadaj had ducked under the second swing, Cloud grabbed his opponent by the throat as soon as he stopped spinning. Kadaj was helpless as Cloud started delivering a knee to his abdominis rectus muscles three times before finally throwing his opponent to the ground like a rag doll, and attempting to chop him in half before he could get away…no such luck. Kadaj had managed to recover fast enough roll away from the chop towards the left, and successfully landed a stab to Cloud's torso—he was only stopped from running his blade through the stomach because of Cloud catching the blades with his left hand at the last moment, and stopping it from piercing any organs. Kadaj kept trying to drive the blades into his opponent, but to no avail—his opponent had a higher degree of brute strength as he pulled the blade out of his side, and then released the two-pronged katana, off-balancing Kadaj before he took a backhand to the face, and then forcing him to dodge under his opponent's sword before he was tripped up with a low kick, and Cloud stabbed into the ground when a white light had appeared.

* * *

The City Walls…a moment ago

Vincent's summoning had taken a while now. Yuffie could only watch as he stayed in pure concentration for the past few minutes now. Everyone was fighting their hardest at the moment, and they may not be able to hold out for much longer. Before she could say anything to break Vincent out of his trance, she saw him shoot his arms forward and clasp both hands together, with one word leaving his lips in a shout: "Katsu!"

With that, the crest on the ground had glowed a bright red, and then a pillar of light had shot up into the air before engulfing the city in a bright white light. When the flash had cleared out, something had emerged from the brightness…it was a gigantic firebird with a long neck and a short beak attached to a crested head. The feathers on its body were red, but the wing tips were orange, and then gold. The tail feathers alluded one to a peacock with its black outline, and red and golden wings. Hovering over its back was a ring of gold and decorated with three flame motifs placed in an equidistant arrangement from each other in such a way that it resembled a tomoe. This must have been the avatar of the great goddess of ancient times, the goddess who married Leviathan and created mankind—the goddess known as Phoenix.

Vincent simply knelt down in reverie before the avatar, as it took the form of a beautiful empress dressed in a flowing crimson kimono with gold trim designed for the royalty and her long ebony hair that fell to the bottom of her calves were held up in a bun with black ornamental chopsticks behind her head. As Yuffie looked at the woman, she saw that the avatar of Phoenix had a striking resemblance to Vincent—even while wearing her tiara, she saw a female version of him.

Vincent was facing the ground. She had never seen him this way, and even before another woman—perhaps the Hinotori worshipped this woman. "My lady, I have summoned you forth to beg for your help as of this night. The Shinra Kingdom is making war against the people of Wutai. Though they prosper and continue to grow, they pay no respect to nature; and so in their arrogance, they have created monstrosities that have been infused with the essence of the great enemy from the sky. I beg you, to help us turn the tides of this battle so that we may continue to be victorious from this day forward. And in return, upon the end of this battle, I shall do whatever it is that you ask of me…anything at all, and I shall grant it within reason."

The avatar simply knelt down to Vincent, and raised his head gently in both hands. Yuffie could not miss the shock that was in his eyes as he looked at the face in front of him… "There is no need for you to do this," she said, her voice was a dulcet tone, as she smiled sweetly at him, "you do not owe me anything. I however, have a debt to you, Vincent Valentine, or should I say, Hinotori Mugetsu, the last prince of the Hinotori tribe. I had only one regret after I had died my second death—I never got to hold my son since the last I saw of him…I never got to embrace him as a mother one last time before I succumbed to my wounds. Vincent, would my son forgive his mother for not being there for him all his life?"

The look in Vincent's eyes had softened…before he smiled back to the woman. It was then that Yuffie guessed the identity of this woman. "She had never wronged him in any way, and so there is nothing to forgive. There was nothing she could have done to prevent what happened afterwards, and so he should continue to honor your sacrifice to him—your debt has been repaid."

The woman simply grabbed Vincent in a hug, and then released him before transforming back into the form of the phoenix and flew into the horizon, bringing her warm light of life before the entire city. Once the light had cleared up, the Wutainese wall guards looked around in confusion…they had no wounds on their bodies. "Was that…"

Vincent turned to look at Yuffie as she spoke, that soft look still in his eyes. "Yes. I have just found this out myself as well. Only the most powerful of the Hinotori queens and princesses are chosen to be the avatar of the great goddess herself. And it would seem that my mother, Princess Hinotori Shiroyuki, daughter of Queen Shimada Mizuki of the ice tribes from the mountains and King Hinotori Hayate of the fire tribes from the jungles was that chosen avatar.

"Vincent, what do we…"

Vincent's voice was gentle as he spoke. "I did ask you to corral the enemy into the center of the city did I not?"

It was then that Yuffie realized what Vincent had in mind! He was planning to resurrect all the members of the wall guard in order for them to take potshots on the enemies at hand. "Everyone! Open fire into the center of the town! Target all Shinra troopers! Now!"

Their response was quick—the loud banging sound of steam rifles being fired filled the air as their bullets pierced through riot shields and bone and sinew alike. The arrows found themselves making short work of the enemy soldiers by disarming and killing them alike. It was then that a new player had entered the field just as the last member of SOLDIER was gunned down. "Impressive," said a voice from behind Vincent, "I never thought that the Phoenix summon had this kind of use…and it was such a beautiful summon as well."

"She is the goddess of my people, General," said Vincent, knowing who it was that spoke, "just as she is to me and the rest of the world. The Shinra Kingdom's sins against nature will be punished in due time…eventually, your greed and your hubris will be your downfall."

"I don't know what it is that mother sees in you. You don't worship her, you defy us, and you are practically very weak. I really wonder why she chose you when she could have chosen a high-ranking member of SOLDIER to be her second-in-command…when she could have chosen me or my brothers…"

Vincent turned to face his opponent. "Then perhaps we should end this here and now?"

With that, Vincent stood at the ready to draw his sword—and then Sephiroth saw it; it was the red eyes of the Hinotori as they glowed a bright red light. He had a split-second to respond when he noticed that Vincent had disappeared into thin air, and then he quickly moved his Masamune-forged nodachi to block a slash aimed to his back, and then countered by following through with a sideways slash only to realize that he was hitting nothing…the last thing he saw was an afterimage of Vincent before it vanished before dodging a thrust aimed at his sternum, and countering with an elbow drop, just to see that he had hit another afterimage. Just as Yuffie had summoned her Shuriken, she heard the sound of a gun cocking from behind her. "Those two are already busy," said the owner of the gun, "don't worry, you'll have your chance with big brother, but in the meantime, why don't we have some fun?" Yuffie immediately ducked quickly, and swept her leg under her opponent before he dropped down to the bottom of the wall with Yuffie at his heels.

Sephiroth analyzed his opponent's fighting style quickly as his eyes started tracking an apparently invisible swordsman. "So this is the power of the Akuma no Gan, otherwise known as the 'Eyes of the Devil'…when you focus power into your eyes, you move so quickly that you are practically invisible, and then you are also able to create afterimages of yourself so that you can mislead your opponent into revealing an opening. Fortunately, I've been trained to counter your efforts." As he continued tracking his opponent down, Sephiroth noted a fist coming into his face as he noticed the target punching him square in the mandible, thus dropping him down the wall. At any moment now, he'll have his bargaining chip…he prayed that Yazoo could keep her occupied enough to turn the tables around. He managed to gain control of his sleeper agent, and just in time for Kadaj to be spared a rather quick and gruesome death at the hands of a rather powerful ex-SOLDIER member. He may not know it, but he will be the death of the world…a shame for Loz though, but still, Kadaj was an arrogant little shit, and besides, it would do for their little brother to join in place of their recently deceased brother. But in the meantime, he has to stall while he gets here—mind-controlled sleeper agents are good tools, but they have the IQ of zombies, and the speed to boot unless ordered to fight.

It's a good thing that they're following those two to the ground level—that would even the playing field a bit, and plus he'll have more distractions…

The second Yuffie landed, she noted that she was in a heavily-wooded area—great, she had found herself in the park district. Before she could turn around, she heard the sound of a cocking revolver. "I wouldn't move right now, you don't know how fast my trigger finger is." Her opponent had been mocking her from behind. "Any last words?"

"Go to hell!"

Just before Yazoo could pull the trigger, he noted that the target was standing next to him, and had landed a straight punch to his face, causing the bullet to fly away from Yuffie. The next thing he saw was Valentine jumping onto him to land the killing blow before he noted the blade of his elder brother coming in to intercept. "You think I'm going to let yet another brother be killed?" he asked with sincere anger in his voice, "You are sorely mistaken if I'm going to let you do so that easily."

Vincent managed to break the lock by jumping backward, and pulled three needles out of a hidden brace in his right forearm, and threw them at high speeds, aiming for Sephiroth before activating his Akuma no Gan and vanishing into thin air. Sephiroth pushed his brother aside, and watched as the needles penetrated the bark of a camphor tree behind him. That was close: those needles were aimed at three meridians in his body that could have frozen all control to his arms, and his torso. Luckily, Sephiroth had several factors that were going on for him…and with that, he too vanished into thin air as he disappeared into a world where all things were slower than normal…

Yazoo was confused by what had just happened, but he was not going to complain—he had his own job to perform…and his job happened to take advantage of the chaos his brother and his opponent had caused to disappear. Speaking of taking advantage, Yazoo snapped the cylinder of his revolver out, and checked it before snapping it back into the gun—he was fully loaded with six shots all ready to gun down that little bitch…oh the pain she'll have to deal with when he finally pins her down…the moaning…the screaming…come to think of it, that would be a perfect opportunity to have some fun before killing her…with that, he started running further into the forest with her scent in his nose. The scent of sweat, adrenaline, jasmine, and lavender was intoxicating him…oh he can't wait to finally bring her into a world of pain! And the sound of her heart pumping quickly from fleeing him was turning him on even more!

Before he could walk any further, Yazoo heard the sound of three objects spinning towards him. He immediately took cover behind a white oak as he heard the 'thunk, thunk, thunk' of three blades imbedding themselves into the trunk of the tree. He then came out of cover, and saw that the princess was charging him down and dragging her gigantic shuriken behind her. He barely had time to back flip away from her before she swung her shuriken upwards and calling out "Greased Lightning" before following through with an overhead slash, and then swinging her body around to cut him. Before she could recover from her heavy attack, Yazoo had rolled away further away from Yuffie, and fired a single shot at her only to watch as a blur black and red had come and slashed the bullet in half before a flash of silver had swung down in front of him. Yuffie then took advantage of the distraction to throw Conformer at Yazoo, and then she started chasing it down even after it cut through Yazoo's forearm with the gun in his hand, following through by kicking him over, and pinning him down with her foot. She was ready to deliver the finishing blow when she felt a sharp and blunt strike hit her from behind her neck—she was knocked out by a karate chop…

Vincent had wasted enough time already by jumping in to save Yuffie, but it was worth it to give her the distraction she needed to finish the job, and his body was covered in wounds—Sephiroth was lucky those few times. As soon as he caught the general in open ground, Vincent found that he lost the advantage as if Sephiroth had read every pattern of his acrobatic sword dance and countered with a slash of his own. Once he found Sephiroth in a clearing of tall grass and in normal speed, he also noted that the general was standing with his nodachi slung over his shoulder…he was challenging him to an iaijutsu duel. With that, Vincent sheathed "Quicksilver", and stayed still in meditation—he knew that Sephiroth was much better, and he was pulling all the stops, and so it would not do to half-ass the job. He found what he was looking for in his soul, and tapped into it…with that, he got to his knees while he grabbed his torso in pain as he let the two webbed wings sprout from his back and horns protruded from his forehead, and an explosion of energy had erupted from his body as Vincent became the demon his mother had bonded him to…he had become the avatar of Chaos.

Sephiroth looked unimpressed, but his fear of the demon was shown as he tightened his grip on "Masamune" as the avatar had stood up, and looked his opponent in the eye with a bloodthirsty rage behind them as he turned with his legs spread and ready to spring into the attack and his hands ready to draw and deal the finishing blow. Both warriors charged in, and stopping ten paces behind each other after each of them had swung their deathblows: Sephiroth had performed a downwards slash that moved back up and ended in slinging his sword behind him while Vincent had performed a single horizontal strike all in the span of one second while the two of them had increased in speed, thus increasing the damage each could do.

Vincent's left wing fell off, and a large cut had appeared across his back, and the front of his chest and shoulder…Sephiroth smirked in triumph as he heard the appendage fall to the ground, and the sound of blood spraying out was a welcome sound to him until he felt it! He looked down and found that there was a deep cut across his abdomen and his chest—the damage was not enough to kill him, but it was enough for it to be a mortal wound, and it was enough to paralyze him. He then found himself falling onto his knees and watching as his opponent, still in his demonic form, walked over him with his sword in hand—the cuts he had inflicted were barely starting to stitch themselves back up, and the left wing was barely a skeletal version of itself. Sephiroth continued to watch as Vincent held the katana in his right hand, and started to swing the blade to decapitate his enemy and bring an advantage to the people of Wutai.

"Wait!" shouted the general just in time for the blade of the sword to barely touch his neck, "If I die, so does she!" It was then that Vincent heard the sounds of grunting and struggling. He turned to the direction of the noise, and saw what was going on…Yuffie was being held hostage, and by Cloud Strife! As he looked closer, he noted that his blue eyes were empty—they lacked any sort of a soul in them. Sephiroth's maniacal laughter filled the air as Vincent turned his attention back to his opponent. "I knew that Cloud Strife was the ultimate infiltrator for me the day I found him out! Like any other member of SOLDIER, he has mother's genes in him, making him all the easier to control. While out of my mind control, he went on with life as normal, hating us without knowing that he was one of us! It was easy to see through his eyes your fighting style and how to counter it, as well as how to get a trump card! Unfortunately, he had been fighting my control as of late, but it is fortunate for you that I, the great General Sephiroth am not without mercy! I'm willing to let her pathetic life go in exchange for yours—but if you kill me, you'll condemn two innocent lives to death! What will it be, Hinotori Mugetsu, last prince of the Hinotori Tribe?"

Vincent glared at his opponent in hatred…Cloud Strife was being used against his will to hold Yuffie hostage, and to commit suicide after doing the deed. He silently snarled at Sephiroth…and threw his sword down such that the blade dug into the ground. He was submitting. "I'll leave with you under one more condition Sephiroth…you must pull back all your forces from this campaign against Wutai."

"The minute we make it back to the Shinra Kingdom, we'll be able to recall everyone." Vincent looked down at Sephiroth in suspicion. He immediately hung his head in submission as he heard the sound of cuffs binding him from behind. Yuffie immediately started running towards her lover before she was punched in the stomach hard enough to knock her out even longer than she would from a karate chop to the neck from Cloud. As he watched this, Vincent's anger at the general was raised even higher…with a dark glare in his eyes fixated on Sephiroth, he made a silent vow as he walked towards the rafts…

* * *

_**A/N: gasp Oh my god…Cloud was the sleeper agent? Who would have thought that? And since this is a battle chapter, I decided to show how everyone's doing in the battle while Vincent summoned Phoenix.**_

_**

* * *

**_

_**Translations/Vocabulary:**_

_**Red light district—the part of a town that is rather heavy on strippers, prostitutes, and hookers…kids are not allowed here. It is so named because of red lanterns marking the place, due to red's symbolism for passion, love, and lust.**_

_**Tomoe—the comma emblem very common in Japanese culture. You have three commas all arranged in a circular fashion so that it looked like that they were all travelling in the same path like the ouroboros snake eating its tail for eternity. **_

_**Meridian—this is an acupuncture point, close this up with a needle, and all parts of the body associated with this point are either frozen or treated.**_

_**Sternocleidomastoid—your neck muscles**_

_**Abdominis Rectus—your abdominal muscles**_

_**Jugular—one of the important veins in your neck**_

_**Sternum—the bone that joins your ribs together**_

_**Larynx—your throat, voice box, and your Adam's apple.**_

_**Mugetsu—read in kanji as "no moon" or "moon of nothingness", this is Vincent's real name.**_

_**

* * *

**_

_**Songs played:**_

"_**Hella Good" by No Doubt,—Tifa vs. Loz**_

"_**A Man of Determination" by George Lam—Drunken Immortal stance**_

"_**Theme of Gouki" by Hideyuki Fukasawa—Akuma no Gan activates**_


	9. IMPORTANT!

**Greetings to the fine folk that moderate our site.**

**Myself, along with many, have been writing and posting on your fine site for years now, some of the better examples of up and coming writers out there are now suddenly finding some of the stories we've come to love at risk of being removed without the chance to even rectify our errors.**

**For some, that means the permanent loss of a story. While I don't have anything that I believe violates your terms of use, there are those out there that are never able to recover a story in its original form, this is something I find to be almost worthy of a legal action, as while we cannot claim ownership of a character, the stories are OURS and simply destroying them is something that is inexcusable.**

**It's quite easy to simply add an MA rating, additional filters or even a simple requirement for a free membership to read the stories presented here, and would cut down on hateful anonymous reviews and posts at the same time, so I have to question as to why such a thing, in all this time, simply wasn't added.**

**If you're worried about falsification of a registration then have an appropriate disclaimer and then there can be no dispute, you took your steps and the PARENTS didn't monitor their children, if that is even your concern. If it is more of a personal view or desire then please at least let people know and give them a chance to remove a story that you and yours find offensive, most people on the site are actually rather cordial when it comes to such requests.**

**While I cannot say for sure if this letter will even reach those that may be willing to listen, of if it's more akin to a wide spectrum purge in preparation for something bigger, please understand that you are going to be looseing a LARGE number of your writers, and thus your income from a lack of readers if there is not some level of action taken to help with this situation.**

**For those that may agree with this, please feel free to sign on and send this to the support server, maybe we can get some movement on this.**

**Psudocode_Samurai**

**Rocketman1728**

**dracohalo117**

**VFSNAKE**

**Agato the Venom Host**

**Jay Frost**

**SamCrow**

**Blood Brandy**

**Dusk666**

**Hisea Ori**

**The Dark Graven**

**BlackRevenant**

**Lord Orion Salazar Black**

**Sakusha Saelbu**

**Horocrux**

**socras01**

**Kumo no Makoto**

**Biskoff**

**Korraganitar the NightShadow**

**NightInk**

**Lazruth**

**ragnrock kyuubi**

**SpiritWriterXXX**

**Ace6151**

**FleeingReality**

**Harufu**

**Exiled crow**

**Slifer1988**

**Dee Laynter**

**Angeldoctor**

**Final Black Getsuga**

**ZamielRaizunto**

**Fenris187**

**blood enraged**

**arashiXnoXkami**

**Masane Amaha's King**

**Blueexorist**

**Nero Angelo Sparda**

**Uzunaru999**

**ZariGS**

**Legionary Prime**

Kurogane7


End file.
